


Shadows Have Offended

by oyhumbug



Category: The OC
Genre: Angst, Drama, F/M, Flash Fic, Romance, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-11-28
Updated: 2008-02-05
Packaged: 2018-01-19 04:40:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 23,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1455760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oyhumbug/pseuds/oyhumbug
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Marissa Cooper wakes up from an erotic dream, everything is not what it seemed, and it will never be the same again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> Previously posted on fanfiction.net, LJ (oy_humbug2), and my own site (Delicious Infatuation).

**Shadows Have Offended**

 

**Chapter One**

**OCFF#3: A Midsummer Night’s Dream**

 

It was one of the last days of summer, and they were alone. No interruptions, no third parties, no plans, just the two of them, and that was something to be cherished. She watched him from across the patio, lounging relaxed and carefree on a pool chair, a heavy book in one hand as his other rested underneath his head. He was reading, absorbed in someone else’s life, someone else’s troubles, and, while there was a part of her that did not want to disturb him, there was another, a more demanding urge inside of her, to wanted to go to him, crawl up in his lap, and curl up in his embrace like a content kitten that just licked the cream.

 

Debating, she stood there, shifting bashfully from one foot to the other, twisting her towel in her hands but never once taking her gaze away from him. Making sure she didn’t make a sound for she didn’t want to disturb him, she waited, hoping for a sign as to what she should do, as to what he would want her to do. She knew she was being foolish. After all, he had never turned her away before, so why would he start now, but she also understood that sometimes a person needed their downtime, their personal, quiet time, and she didn’t want to impose upon that, especially since their summer break would soon be over, and they would both be returning to the pressures and expectations of their everyday lives. But she should have known better.

 

Almost as if he sensed her presence, he glanced up from his novel, saw her standing across the patio from him, and smiled. It was always like that. Whenever one of them entered the room, even if the other’s back was turned, they could always sense each other lingering near by. They shared a unique sense of awareness for the other, and it made her feel as if they were connected on a deeper, more united level than other couples; it made her feel as if their relationship was special. Putting his book aside, he held out his right hand towards her, beckoning her to join him.

 

“Come here,” he whispered, his words both pleading and demanding in nature at the same time, and, of course, she could never deny him.

 

With those two softly spoken words, her nerves disappeared only to be replaced with a sense of confidence. She returned his smile and made her way towards him, instinctively adding a saucy swing to her hips, an enticing roll to the most primitively erotic curve of her body. Once at his side, she allowed him to wrap his still extended arm around her waist, pulling her down to sit pertly in his lap.

 

“So, what do you want to do today?”

 

Avoiding his gaze, she tossed her beach towel away and crossed her legs, allowing the long stems to glide smoothly across each other, knowing his murky blue eyes were following each and every one of her form’s languid movements. “Well, we’re alone right?” Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him nod quickly, his Adam’s apple bobbing twice as he swallowed in rapid succession. “And it’s been a while since it’s been just you and me.”

 

“It has,” he agreed, his voice saturated with pleasure and anticipation. She couldn’t help it; she had to smile at his obvious enthusiasm.

 

“So that’s why I was hoping we could just stay here. You could read for a little while, and I could lay out, and, from there, we’ll just see where the day take us.”

 

“Really,” he questioned her suggestion. “That’s what you really want to do?”

 

Biting down on her lip to prevent herself from laughing, she had to admit that her boyfriend was too damn cute for his own good when he was disappointed and started to pout. It was just one of the reasons why she could never say no to him. Another was because she was hopelessly in love with the man holding her in his arms, and she knew he felt the same way towards her.

 

Decisively, she stated, “yes, it is. Now, lean back,” she instructed him, “so I can get comfortable.”

 

With a goofy grin on his face, he complied. Swinging one of her legs across his, she straddled him, lifting both of her arms above her head to tie up her long, blonde locks. Fascinated, she watched as his gaze lingered over her, drank her in, appreciated all the delicate, fine movements of her muscles as she fixed her hair and then dropped her hands to untie the strings of her bikini top. Unabashedly, she let the material fall down and flutter to the cement of the patio, baring her body almost completely to her boyfriend’s greedy eyes.

 

Finally and without elevating his orbs of cobalt blue away from her chest, he asked in a shaky, aroused voice, “what are you doing?”

 

“I don’t want tan lines,” she responded as if the answer was obvious.

 

“And what about your bottoms?”

 

Oh, the man she loved was definitely mischievous and full of trouble, but two could play that game. “You need someplace to hold onto me so I don’t fall off of you,” she replied breezily, acting as if she didn’t know what her words were doing to him, “and I can’t have the print of your hand tanned onto my back, so we’re going to have to compromise. I’m going to have to settle with not tanning in the nude, and you’re going to have to hold me a little lower than you usually do.” Innocently, she peered down at him, “is that okay?”

 

“I think I can manage.”

 

Grinning at him appreciatively, she settled down, sprawling her tall form over his. Chests pressed intimately together, she nuzzled her face into his neck, placing several subtle, whispered kisses below his ear. Content she let her eyes drift shut as the sun overhead and her boyfriend’s hand against her bikini clad, rounded derrière lulled her into a serene, tranquil rest.

 

They both knew that he wouldn’t be able to read for that much longer and that she would quickly get bored with laying out, but, before they gave in to the passion they felt for each other, they would enjoy the comfortable, quiet, sensual moment in each others arms. After all, summer would come to a close sooner rather than later, and neither of them knew when another opportunity like the one they found themselves taking advantage of that afternoon would come their way.

 

~ } { ~

 

With a start, Marissa found herself falling, being pushed out of the lounge chair and onto the harsh, unyielding concrete of the patio. Except, she hadn’t been pushed; she had been kicked. Except, the lounge chair was instead a full sized bed, and, except, what was supposed to be a poolside patio was rather the scratchy material of her boyfriend’s carpet.

 

It had all been a dream.

 

Suddenly depressed and unwilling to go back to the bed she had no desire to be in, the young woman quietly made her way out of the upstairs bedroom and crept down to the kitchen where she passed through the open terrace doors and went to stand outside. Being July, the evenings were warm enough that she wasn’t chilled standing there exposed wearing only a light camisole and a pair of girl boxer shorts. Her hair, which had been pinned up before she went to bed, had come loose sometime during her sleep and was blowing gently with the light breeze coming off the Pacific Ocean. There were many bad, unpleasant things that had happened to her while living in Newport Beach, even at her tender age of eighteen, but California was still her home, the sea her steadying presence, and Marissa could not imagine leaving it, not even for her boyfriend.

 

“Isn’t it a little past your bedtime?”

 

If it had been any other voice, the person behind her would have startled her, but not him. Turning around to face her moonlit companion, the blonde smiled in recognition. Those cobalt eyes always seemed to make her feel at ease, calm in her own skin. But she shouldn’t feel that way. The man before her was not her boyfriend; he was not the childhood friend who had turned into her first love while they were in high school together. Instead, he was the brother of the man she was dating, the older, wiser, dangerously attractive brother she should not be having erotic dreams about at night.

 

Finally answering him, she responded, “I had a dream, and, after I woke up, I couldn’t sleep.”

 

“A nightmare?”

 

Unwittingly, she blushed, averting her eyes from his piercing, questioning gaze and pivoting back around to look out over at the ocean below. “No,” the young woman finally murmured.

 

She could feel him moving behind her, could sense when he stopped and lifted his hands to rest them comfortingly against her shoulders. “Do you want to talk about it?”

 

And, just like that, he broke down every feeble, inadequate defense she had managed to build up between them over the years. In the fall, she would be going to school in San Francisco to study photography, Seth would be going to Rhode Island to attend Brown, his dream college, and Ryan would be going to Berkeley to study law, following in his adopted father’s footsteps.

 

Sighing, Marissa attempted to explain. “Things are just… they’re complicated right now. Seth and I, we used to make so much sense, but now…” Her voice trailed off, because she wasn’t sure how much she should reveal her boyfriend’s best friend and brother, how much should remain private and personal between her and the man she was supposed to love.

 

Seth didn’t understand her dreams. He hated that she refused to follow him to the east coast, he hated the fact that she didn’t want to be far from home, and sometimes it felt like the boy who had always been able to make her laugh, who had stood by her through some of the worst times in her life, didn’t hear her anymore. He dismissed her art, refused to do things she liked, and made everything they shared together about him. But, on the other hand, he was still Seth; he was still the goofy, endearing guy who had meant more to her than anyone else ever had so far in her life. How did she move past that? Was it even possible?

 

Breaking her free of her thoughts, Ryan turned her around in his arms and starred into her eyes for several long, assessing minutes. When he spoke, his voice was smooth and reassuring. “People change, Marissa. Sometimes it’s hard to realize that they have, that we have, and, most of the time, it’s even harder to accept the changes, but you have to. It’s a natural part of life.” Lifting a hand to cup her jaw, he brushed back a few strands of hair that were sticking to her lips. Leaning in, he placed a tender, reassuring kiss to the tip of her nose before breaking their connection and stepping away. “If you ever need to talk, you know where to find me.”

 

And, just like that, he vanished almost as quickly as he had first appeared. Going back inside, she shut the French doors, closing off the midsummer night from behind her. With butterflies dancing in her stomach, she made her way back to bed, wondering if the fairies were at work again.


	2. Chapter Two

**Shadows Have Offended**

 

**Chapter Two**

**OCFF#4: Bra Burners**

 

She was homesick.

 

For a girl who spent most of her high school years away from home and with her friends, it was a novel yet true concept. Marissa had always wanted to go to college, but, now that she was there, she was wondering if maybe, perhaps she should have chosen a school closer to her family, to Newport, closer to the comforts home brought her. However, as she sat alone in her dorm room, her roommate already off visiting new friends she had made during freshman orientation, all the eighteen year old Southern California native wanted to do was pick up her cell phone, call her parents, and beg them to drive back up to San Francisco so she could go home. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a foreseeable desire.

 

Not only had she already unpacked all of her bags, but she truly did want to succeed, and, in the back of her mind, she knew that her fear and melancholy were born more from a sense of feeling incomplete and lost than from a genuine longing to see her family. After all, they were not close; in fact, they were, in truth, broken. Her parents rarely were able to put aside the animosity they still felt towards one another due to their divorce, and her sister had no interest in anyone but herself. Instead, Marissa yearned for the very things she knew she would miss when she went off to college – the ocean, her room and the things in it, and her old friends, the very things that leant to the young woman her identity. So, in essence, she wasn’t exactly homesick as much as she was lost in a place she didn’t feel as if she belonged to yet.

 

Needing a connection, she did the only thing she could think of besides giving into her fear and calling her parents; she called her boyfriend. Seth had moved to Rhode Island the week before due to Brown starting their semester earlier than her school, so he was already settled into his new, college life. During their many conversations since he had flown out to the east coast, he had shared with her stories about the new friends he was making, his favorite places on campus, and his classes and professors. Her boyfriend loved being away from home and the person he was in Newport; he felt as if relocating across the country had given him the chance to reinvent himself. Unfortunately, Marissa didn’t want to become a new person. All she wanted was to make her old person fit into a new environment. That said though, she figured if anyone would be able to make her smile, to make her forget about her feelings of depression, it would be the boy who had always understood her.

 

“So,” Seth prompted her, either forgetting or purposely skipping a greeting, “is it awesome?”

 

With a quiet, unsure voice, Marissa answered, hoping to convey to the brunette what she felt while still not dampening his excitement. After all, it could end up being contagious, and she could certainly use some enthusiasm towards her new life. “It’s… different.”

 

“I know. That’s what I love about it,” he gushed, speaking hurriedly. “What’s your room like? Are the bathrooms pretty disgusting? Ours are here, but, eh, I’m a guy, so it really doesn’t matter to me. What about the food court, because, I have to tell you, I think the food court might be my favorite thing about college. And then there’s your roommate. Is she pretty cool?”

 

Feeling overburdened and completely frazzled, she simply sighed. When she heard her boyfriend emit a similar sound, one that sounded slightly annoyed instead of bewildered as was hers, she knew it was the incorrect reaction.

 

“What’s wrong?”

 

“You know, I’m sure everything’s great,” Marissa prefaced her statement in an attempt to appease him. “Of course I haven’t had any classes yet, so I haven’t met my professors, and my roommate seemed… confident… during the few minutes we saw each other, but I guess I’m just missing home.”

 

“Home,” he questioned her, repeating her final word. “As in Newport, as in the bubble we grew up in all our lives and promised to one day escape?”

 

“That’s just it, Seth,” Marissa explained. “I only wanted to escape because you did, and, when I promised you that we would when we were little kids, I thought we’d escape together, but, here we are, on opposite sides of the country, and I’m feeling a little uncomfortable. San Francisco is huge, and I know no one that I go to school with. I’m sitting in this small little dorm room with my one window open, but I feel claustrophobic - like I can’t breathe, and all I want to do is go outside and run down to the beach, but I can’t.”

 

“So, you miss the ocean?”

 

“Among other things.”

 

“Well, you’re close to it. Whenever you get a few free hours, go see the Golden Gate Bridge. Oh, and make sure you take some pictures for me,” Seth beseeched of her.

 

“It’s not that simple,” the blonde complained, feeling petty to continue with their current conversation but finding herself unable to stop and wishing that her boyfriend could simply recognize where she was coming from. “It’s not that close to campus, and I’m living on a fixed budget. I can’t blow all my money on cab rides throughout the city everyday.”

 

They were silent for several minutes, and, when it became obvious that the boy she had always turned to for comfort for the past eighteen years was not going to be able to provide it, Marissa decided to cut him a break.

 

“Listen, I should let you go. It’s getting late for you, and I’m sure I’m just overreacting. In a few days, everything will be better, and, instead of wanting to go home, I’ll be dreading Thanksgiving break.”

 

“Okay, good,” Seth agreed, “because I have to go anyway. I’m meeting up with some people to go to this show at one of the local clubs.”

 

“But it’s the middle of the week,” she argued, “and you have class tomorrow.”

 

The only response Marissa received was her boyfriend’s laughter. Apparently, more things than she thought had changed in the week since her Seth had moved to the east coast. Suddenly, she wasn’t even sure if she knew who he was any longer, and thinking that made her feel even more lost in a world that was starting to seem unrecognizable.

 

~ } { ~

 

It was late. Curled up in her bed all alone, the window next to her still open to emit the fresh air and the sounds of life outside of her room, Marissa sat cuddled under her thin sheet, the summer heat making it unnecessary for her to use any other blankets. She was watching TV, bored with nothing else to do, and waiting for her roommate to return. Although a forced friendship of necessity wasn’t something she particularly craved under normal circumstances, she was desperate for someone to talk to, for a connection to something in her new home city, and a stranger she was being forced to live with was better than nothing or no one. Yes, she could have ventured outside to lounge on the campus green or to hunt out a freshman haunt, but, not feeling too confident or comfortable with her capabilities to navigate her surroundings yet, the eighteen year old photography major decided it was safer to simply remain in her dorm room and wait for the connection she wanted to find her.

 

Suzanne Wong was just about to announce which house the newlyweds searching for a new home had decided to purchase when there was a knock on her door. Grumbling, Marissa pushed her sheet away, climbed out of bed, and ambled slowly towards the entrance to her room, annoyed that somebody had the wrong door. Knowing that there was no one who would be seeking her out and that her roommate had posted a note to all potential visitors alerting them as to where they could find her if they were so inclined, the blonde knew that her guest really wasn’t hers at all and that they were simply lost… in the physical sense unlike her emotional confusion and vulnerability.

 

Swinging the door open without looking, she announced, “you have the wrong room. I’ll try to help you find who you’re looking for, but I’m new here, so you’re probably shit out of luck.”

 

The older man standing across from her smirked, laughed, and then responded. “So then you’re not Marissa Cooper? I guess what they say is true then; everybody does have a twin somewhere out there.”

 

“Ryan?” With eyes wide with surprise and pleasure, she asked, “what are you doing here?”

 

“So not only does Marissa Cooper’s doppelganger go to the same school as she does, she also knows me. Weird.”

 

“Very funny,” she giggled, holding the door open wider in a silent invitation for him to enter. “So I see you still like to tease me here in San Francisco as much as you do back home. Odd enough, tonight, I find that to be slightly comforting.”

 

He entered, carrying in his hands a small duffle bag. “I take it you’re feeling a little nostalgic for home?”

 

“Yeah, I am.” Blushing and with a roll of her bright blue eyes, she instructed her boyfriend’s brother. “Go ahead, laugh it up like Seth did.”

 

“Why would I laugh?”

 

“That was definitely not the reaction I was expecting.” Starring at him in astonishment, she collapsed onto her bed, sitting down so quickly it appeared as if her legs simply had given out on her.

 

Without asking, Ryan sat down beside her, picked up her hand, and gave it a friendly squeeze. The close contact only made her blush more, but, focused upon what he was going to say, the older man didn’t notice her embarrassment. “I get it. When I first started college four years ago, I was homesick, too, and, even now, I sometimes regret choosing a graduate school so far away from my family. I mean, our reasoning for feeling that way is probably vastly different, but, in the end, we both feel depressed and kind of adrift.”

 

Curious, she asked, “why do you feel that way?”

 

“It took me a long time to find someplace where I really belong, and, for me, that’s not Newport, and it’s not Southern California; it’s with the Cohens – with Sandy, Kirsten, and, yes, sadly,” he teased, winking at her, “even Seth. When I leave them behind, I know it’s irrational, but sometimes I feel as if I’m losing them.”

 

“That will never happen,” Marissa reassured the man beside her. Despite the fact that he had been on the peripheral of her life for years, always there but never actually affecting her existence, they had never been close, but she still felt the urge to comfort him. Maybe it was because he was Seth’s family and, in connection, she thought of him as a part of hers, perhaps it could have been because she was attracted to him despite not wanting to be, or it might have simply been because he had sought her out on a night when she really needed a friend, whatever the reason, it didn’t matter. What did was that just as he had done something for her by dropping by for a visit, she could, in that moment, return the favor. “Your family needs you in their life just as much as you need them. Trust me, if either Sandy or Kirsten felt you were slipping away, they’d probably sell their house in Newport and move up here. You’re never going to lose them, Ryan.”

 

“In here,” he tapped his heart,” I know that, but here,” he moved his free hand to his head, “I sometimes have my doubts.”

 

“As do we all.”

 

“Now,” he urged her, nudging her shoulder in an affectionate if not playful manner, “why are you feeling homesick?”

 

“I’m not sure if who I am will fit in here,” the eighteen year old revealed. “I’m not sure if I’ll make as much sense here as I do in Newport. I had a niche there, a place that was carved out just for me, and I liked it. Plus,” she added, avoiding his gaze, “I miss the ocean.”

 

“For the first few nights freshman year, it was impossible for me to sleep without the sound of the waves,” Ryan admitted. “And, since I knew that you have lived on the beach your whole entire life, I figured it would be even worse for you. So, with that in mind, I brought supplies.”

 

Standing up, he opened his duffel bag, pulling out ocean scented candles and a CD that played the sounds of the sea. Marissa watched on in amazement as he prepared both gifts for her, thankful that one of them had thought of the idea. After he closed the window to block out the sounds of the city, he turned back around to face her, shrugging.

 

“This should help. It helps me. So,” he pushed her, “do whatever you have to do, get ready for bed, and I’ll see you tomorrow.”

 

“Tomorrow?”

 

“Yeah, I figured I’d give you a tour of San Francisco… that is, if you wanted me to.”

 

Grinning widely, Marissa beamed towards him. “That sounds great. But, as for getting changed, I already did.”

 

“But don’t you have to…” Flustered, the older man glanced away from her, his ears reddening. “You know,” he gestured towards her chest area.

 

Realization dawned, and, although she normally wouldn’t be so brazen with him, the photography major couldn’t help herself. “What, Ryan, take off my bra?” Her only response was his loud gulp. “Yeah, I really don’t wear them that often.”

 

With that, he smirked, she raised her eyebrows up in a challenge, and, before either of them could say or do anything else, she showed him to the door, her feelings of melancholy replaced with those of anticipation and hope.


	3. Chapter Three

**Shadows Have Offended**

 

**Chapter Three**

**OCFF#5: Curve Ahead.**

 

Saturdays were her favorite day of the week, but, then again, most college students enjoyed Saturdays. However, for Marissa though, it was because of a special reason. Although she enjoyed taking a day off from classes and homework, work study and social commitments, the true reason that she loved Saturdays was because she was able to spend them with Ryan. On the first day she had arrived in San Francisco, he became her lifeline in a city where she knew no one, and, even though she had made plenty of friends in the month and a half that she had been in college, he was her one constant, the one person who was always there no matter what, the one person she looked forward to seeing and spending time with the most. In essence, he was her best friend.

 

Their Saturdays always varied. Sometimes they would spend it lounging around his apartment, watching movies and eating junk food, and, other times, they would go out into the city exploring, Marissa getting them lost and Ryan finding them a way back home, but, on that particular sunny, fall afternoon, the two of them were in the park. While he played a pickup game of soccer with some other graduate students, she snapped away with her camera, finding everything and everyone around her to hold some form of interest. Whether it was the little girl who was there attempting to teach her new puppy how to sit, the elderly couple who were sharing a sandwich on a bench, or even the clear blue sky floating above the harbor city, there were a thousand and one picture opportunities just waiting, begging for her to capture them on film. Her favorite subject though was Ryan.

 

She found his movements to be beautiful. They were so practiced, so ritualistic, so rote, that she could tell just by watching them that he didn’t have to think about which direction to move to next or when to kick the ball. In his gym shorts and tank top, his toned and lean muscles were on display, and they flexed and relaxed without effort, reminding her of poetry in motion. When she thought about it, his grace and physical strength made her laugh. Although she knew that Ryan and Seth were not related by blood, they were still brothers, siblings raised in the same household, but never had there been two more contradictory men in existence who were related to each other, and, while she loved her boyfriend, she had to admit that, to her, Ryan was a breath of fresh air, a welcome change in ever-shifting world.

 

A crisp wind off the bay sent a chill down her spine, momentarily distracting the young photographer from the game being played before her as she set her camera down to pull out a warm sweater and slipped it on. As the cashmere fell against her skin, enveloping it in its delicate embrace, Marissa sighed, loving the feeling of the silky fine fabric against her cool body. She liked to think of it as wearing a cloud, its billowy, almost non-existent touch a whisper of contentment in an otherwise comfortless life. It was perhaps her favorite thing about living in San Francisco – the weather – for it afforded her the chance to wear warmer clothes.

 

As the various strangers playing soccer began to get rowdy, their cheers, catcalls, and shouts of encouragement drew her attention back to the open playing field, and, as she pivoted her gaze back to the game, she noticed that Ryan was running full speed towards the opposing team’s goal, his steps arching widely to cross the width of the grid. Transfixed and pulled into yelling and cheering by the sheer intensity of the moment, she forgot about her camera and simply focused upon her friend. He was close to scoring a goal, a goal that would, in all likelihood, go on to win the so-far scoreless game for his team, when another player caught up to him, coming up from behind and tripping him, leaving Ryan sprawled out across the slightly damp ground, the ball sputtering out of the way to be taken over and controlled by the other players. Too concerned in their sport to notice his prone figure, everyone passed him by, leaving Marissa as the only one worried enough to check upon him.

 

Sprinting across the park, she was at his side in seconds, out of breath more from adrenaline than exhaustion. Immediately, she collapsed down next to him, reclining on her knees and running a hesitant, shaking hand over his brow to brush his errant sun-kissed locks to the side. “What hurts? Are you okay?”

 

“My pride,” the law student responded, sounding frustrated as he sat up and leaned forward to rest his elbows against his bent legs.

 

“What?”

 

Even Marissa, in her dazed state of anxiety, could hear the confusion in her own voice, so it was no surprise that Ryan smiled in her direction, laughing in a teasing manner. “Nothing. I’m just pissed that I blew the goal by not paying attention to the defenders.”

 

“Oh.”

 

They remained there together silently, neither paying attention to anything around them. While she refocused herself, slowly easing the tension from her neck, shoulders, and back, he steadied his rapid breathing. Even in good shape, the game had taken a lot of his energy and fatigued him. Finally, it was Ryan who broke the quiet.

 

“So, who ended up winning?”

 

“I… I’m not sure; I don’t know.” As she thought about her answer, the photographer’s sapphire eyes became wide with astonishment. “I guess I was so concerned about you being hurt, that I didn’t pay any attention to the rest of the game. Sorry.”

 

“It’s no big deal,” he reassured her. When she went to stand up, bracing one hand against the ground to push herself up into a standing position, the older blonde stopped her, grasping her wrist and pulling her back down towards him with one word. “Stay.”

 

Several moments passed as they both collapsed onto the grass, their heads resting beside each others as their legs and arms spread out wide. Finally, curiosity won out, and Marissa asked, “what are we staying for?”

 

“I don’t know. I just don’t feel like leaving yet.” Although she couldn’t see him, the freshman could imagine his shoulders shrugging as he spoke.

 

Silence, once again, filtered in and surrounded them, cloaking the pair in their own private little world. In it, the little girl and her stubborn puppy faded away, the elderly couple disappeared, and even the natural elements surrounding them seemed to evaporate into thin air, leaving only the once homesick college student with her older, wiser friend. Minutes ticked away as they enjoyed simply being nowhere together, but, despite the fact that she did not want to ruin the moment, Marissa wanted to ask Ryan a question even more.

 

“Why did you really come and see me that first day,” she queried, startling him with the emotional vulnerability displayed in her voice. “Why are we really here together now? I mean, six months ago, the extent of our interaction was a passing hello at the breakfast table or a wave in the other’s direction if we saw each other at the store. What changed?”

 

“Everything,” the graduate student stated, giving her the simplest and most complicated response he could in the same answer. Sighing, he explained, “when I first met you, you were this immature, shy little girl, and I was just entering my teenage years. I found both you and Seth with your toy horses and childish giggles to be annoying. Time passed, we both changed, and, the next time I noticed you, you were this awkward teenager and I was going off to college for the first time. You had legs that went on for miles, but you really didn’t seem to know what to do with them, and, even then, when you were fourteen and I was eighteen, Seth was still your whole world. You might have left your toys behind, and your voice might have been deeper, more mature, more like a woman’s, but you were still a child in my eyes, a child I could have nothing in common with. Then, this last summer, I noticed you again, but, this time, I barely recognized what I saw. You weren’t a kid, and you weren’t some developing teenager, but you were a beautiful, sophisticated, intelligent, and interesting woman. You had your cameras, and Seth no longer took up your entire existence, and I realized that maybe we weren’t so different after all, that, maybe, you were more like me than you were the boy you were dating. That’s what I was thinking that night we ran into each other outside; I was thinking that everything had changed – you had changed, I had changed, Seth had changed, and the connections and relationships we shared with each other had changed as well. When you moved here, to San Francisco, I simply got the chance to get to know you better, and I decided to take advantage of it. Apparently, because you’re here with me now, you decided to do the same thing.”

 

Digesting what he had told her, Marissa let his words flow through her. She sorted through them in her mind, weighing them for their worth and meaning, wrapped her emotions around them in her heart, and then sent them back to her mind so she could properly respond. When her response finally left her lips though, she was surprised by how timid and unsure the whispered tones sounded. In fact, if she had not have known better, she would have thought she hadn’t meant what she said at all, but that simply just couldn’t be true.

 

“Seth and I, yes, we’ve both changed quite a bit, but I still love him. I mean, he’s… he’s Seth. He was the only kid who refused to pull my ponytail in preschool, he was the little boy who sat with me on the bus during our first day of kindergarten, he was my friend who stayed in from recess to help me look through the garbage cans to find my retainers not once, not twice, but nineteen different times during sixth grade, he was the first boy I kissed, and the only guy I ever had sex with. He helped me get through my parents’ divorce, and he was the person there at my side when my whole family fell apart. Seth’s always been there, he’s always been a part of my life and who I am, and he always will be.”

 

“Marissa,” the future attorney attempted to sooth her, realizing that his words had challenged a part of her life she, at that point, seemingly was not ready to examine, “I never claimed that you didn’t love my brother anymore. However, I will tell you this right now – you’re not _in love_ with him anymore… if you ever were.”

 

“That’s not true.”

 

“Did you notice that everything you said about Seth was in the past tense? Yes, he _was_ all those things to you long ago, but I don’t think he’s still those things to you at this point, and I know you’re no longer all the things you once were for him either.”

 

Stumbling with her next words, the younger blonde admitted, “I don’t understand what you’re trying to say. What’s the point of all this, Ryan?”

 

“That I can’t tell you,” he stated, standing up and holding a hand out to help her stand as well. “That is something you’re going to have to figure out for yourself on your own.”

 

“But,” she started to protest. However, before she could say anything else, he interrupted her.

 

“Do you admit that you’ve changed?”

 

Without hesitation, Marissa replied, “yes.”

 

Pushing her to see his point, he asked, “and do you admit that Seth has changed, that your relationship with him has changed, and that your relationship with me has changed?”

 

“Of course,” the photographer stated without doubt.

 

“Well then, if so much has changed in your life, wouldn’t it make sense that your feelings have changed as well?” When she simply tilted her head to the side, her tan and flawless face marred with lines of worry and unease, he changed the topic, relieving her anxiety with a simple, crooked grin. “Come on,” Ryan urged, dropping a strong and steady arm around her shoulders and leading her out of the park in a friendly manner, “I’ll take you home. You’ll get changed, we’ll go back to my apartment so I can get change, and then, to pay you back for having to sit through a pretty uneventful soccer game, I’ll treat you to dinner. How does that sound?”

 

“Pretty near perfect, but it would be even better if you threw in dessert, too.”

 

“You and that sweet tooth of yours, Cooper,” he teased her, ruffling her hair and making her squeal with put upon exasperation. “You’re going to get me into trouble someday.”

 

Talking animatedly and laughing sporadically, the two friends made their way towards his parked car, their previous conversation pushed aside to the back of their minds for another day, anther confrontation, but, despite its banishment, the seed of doubt Ryan had planted in her heart was never far away from either of their thoughts.


	4. Chapter Four

**Shadows Have Offended**

 

**Chapter Four**

**OCFF#6: Have you ever met a man of good character where women are concerned? – Professor Henry Higgins, My Fair Lady**

 

The limbo between being awake and still sleeping had always been confusing for Marissa. It was as if her body couldn’t figure out which state it preferred. While, on one hand, if she stayed asleep, she could continue to dream, stay oblivious to the rest of the world, and never have to realize that she had morning breath, the other allowed her to face a new day, attempt to right any mistakes she had made during the previous one, and live her life to the fullest, but, for some reason, it was never an easy decision for her to make. Should she hide from reality or confront it, curl back up in her warm blankets and keep her eyes tightly shut, or should she open them, wince at the bright sunlight streaming through her window, stumble around for a good fifteen minutes while she regained her bearings, and, eventually, come back to an even, awake keel. Luckily, outside forces seemed to make the decision for her, because, otherwise, she’d simply remain in that limbo, that place of partial consciousness. Sometimes it was her alarm clock, its rude, blaring sirens proclaiming to her ears it was time to get up, sometimes it was her roommate stumbling back to their dorm after a very late night of partying, and, on that particular morning, it, apparently, was going to be the continuous rumbling of thunder, the storm practically sitting on top of her.

 

As the harsh noise assaulted her mind, she snapped up and into attention, saying the very first thing that floated into her mind. “Roe versus Wade.”

 

But, as the words escaped her parched, cotton filled mouth, they became the only thing that made sense to her. After a week of studying with Ryan for his midterms, she practically felt like a law student as well, so her immediately declaration of the landmark abortion decision didn’t surprise her. However, instead of being so wrapped up in her sheets that it would take her a good five minutes to figure out how to untangle herself, she realized that she had been sleeping in a kitchen, her head pillowed against a hard, opened text book instead of down feathers. There was no mattress for her form to relax into; all it had for support was the wooden, high backed chair she was sitting on. The most puzzling factor about her location wasn’t even the fact that her small dorm room didn’t have a kitchen, for it wasn’t uncommon for her to spend the night at Ryan’s instead of him having to drive her home when they were both one thirty second bedtime story away from falling over and sleeping for a week. No, what made her pause was the fact that there were no clouds in the sky that morning. The sun was out, it was not raining, and the thunder that had roused her from her slumber sounded too close to be coming from the sky.

 

Startling her once again, she heard another noise. However, the second one was much easier to explain. Twisting around in her chair, she saw Ryan push himself up off the kitchen floor and meander, rather crookedly, towards his front door. His hair was matted flat against the right side of his head while the left side stuck up in every direction but down, his clothes were wrinkled and he had more than a few sticky notes with hastily written reminders sticking to his sweatshirt and jeans, and his face was lined with angry, red creases, proof that the night before had not been any more comfortable for him than it had been for her. As he pulled open the door, she swung back around and allowed her face to fall forward, landing unceremoniously against an empty bag of potato chips, never once paying any attention to whomever it may be who had so rudely awakened them after only a few hours of restless sleep. Instead, all she could think about was that they needed to move their study sessions into the living room, because, if they didn’t, they were both going to need to find a good chiropractor.

 

“Man, you must be coming off one major bender.”

 

Taken aback by the sound of Ryan’s guest’s voice, Marissa’s head shot upwards off the kitchen table so fast she wondered for a moment if she had given herself whiplash. Luckily, the pain went away after a few seconds, and she was left mentally scrambling as she listened to the conversation taking place just a few yards away.

 

“Excuse me,” Ryan questioned.

 

“Your hangover,” Seth elaborated. Although the photography major couldn’t see her boyfriend’s face, she could tell by his tone that he was smiling wickedly. “You look exactly how I felt two days ago.”

 

“What are you doing here?”

 

“I’m here to sell you a new vacuum,” the brunette quipped, laughing at his own joke. When his brother didn’t return the humor, he sobered quickly and explained. “Are you going to invite me in, or has this god-awful state finally managed to steal away not only your soul but your manners as well?”

 

Without a word, Ryan held the door open further, allowing his younger sibling to enter the apartment. “Again, what are you doing here? Don’t you have classes tomorrow?”

 

“Nope, I’m on fall break for a week, and, instead of staying at an empty school, I decided to fly out here and surprise my girlfriend with a visit. The only problem is that Marissa, apparently, has gone MIA. Her roommate told me that she hasn’t seen her in over a week. You wouldn’t happen to know where she is, would you?”

 

Before the law student could answer, she stood up, rolling her neck in a vain attempt to crack it and relieve the sudden amount of pressure she felt piling up on her shoulders. The sound of her movements drew two distinctly different pairs of eyes towards her direction, one set soft and brown, their rich, swirling depths full of amusement and wit, and the other a crisp blue that managed to notice everything and anything they came in contact with.

 

“You should have called first, Seth.”

 

Even she was surprised by the coldness reflected in her voice. She could tell by the slack jawed reaction of her boyfriend that he had definitely been expecting a different response from her, but it was the blonde next to him whose reaction intrigued her. Ryan simply titled his head to the side and watched her with a guarded and yet still captivated expression upon his exhaustedly handsome face, and, for some reason, Marissa felt nervous under his scrutiny, afraid that one misstep on her part might wash away the awareness and replace it with disappointment or even regret.

 

Shaking her mind clear of the confusing thoughts, she refocused her attention and elaborated, “I have classes all this week, Seth – midterms. You can’t just waltz into town and expect me to drop everything.”

 

“I never said that…”

 

But she wouldn’t let him finish. “I know you,” the eighteen year old woman stated decisively. “You hate downtime, loath being by yourself. You’re going to want me to show you around the city, introduce you to all my new friends, spend all my waking and sleeping moments with you, and I can’t.” Unconsciously, she switched gears, taking her complaints and molding them to include the man she had so innocently spent the previous night with. “We have tests to study for, projects to start and finish, commitments to meet, and already made plans that don’t include you. We have a life here, one you can’t just show up in unannounced, completely monopolize, and make about you.” Softening her tone, she relented somewhat. “I love that you wanted to surprise me, that your first instinct was to jump on a plane and spend your fall break with me, but it’s just not going to be possible.”

 

“Well, actually,” the brunette mused out loud, “I tried getting my parents to send me on a trip to Tahiti with a bunch of friend from school, but they refused to give me any more money until I get my grades up.”

 

The fact that her boyfriend had not initially planned to spend his week off from school with her didn’t bother Marissa; what did was the fact that, evidently, her straight-A, intelligent, focused boyfriend was not doing near as well in college as he could do, as she expected him to do. “What do you mean, Seth? How bad are your grades?”

 

“They’re not terrible.” He laughed, moving around the kitchen in search of something to eat and coffee to drink, coming up empty when he found a coffee pot, filters, and ground beans but no one willing to make the caffeinated beverage for him. “I mean, it’s not like I’m failing or anything. So what if I have a few C’s? There’s more to college than going to class and doing all your assigned work. And a D’s not going to keep me from creating the next successful line of comic books.”

 

For the first time in minutes, Ryan spoke up. “Except it might. No one is going to want to back some flunky of a kid who can’t even manage to get decent grades in his introductory freshman courses, not to mention the fact that, if you can’t pass the courses you’re taking now, you’ll never be able to complete the more advanced ones.”

 

Seth shrugged, ignoring his brother. “Don’t worry about it, man. I’ve still got a couple of months and friends who have already promised to help me out in any way I might need them to.”

 

“You mean friends who you’ve suckered into doing the work for you, into letting you cheat off of them?”

 

“You make it sound like a crime, Marissa,” the brunette defended himself, becoming annoyed. “Everyone does it.”

 

“No,” the law student countered, frowning, “everyone doesn’t.” Sighing, Ryan ran an agitated hand through his disheveled hair before suggesting, “look,” he said, “we have a lot of studying to do. Why don’t you take my car and drive home to see Mom and Dad. Spend the week with them, hang out down in Newport, and then drive back up here next weekend. By then, we’ll both be done with our midterms, and we’ll be able to show you around San Francisco.”

 

Instead of replying right away, Seth let his gaze rest heavily upon his older sibling before turning it and holding it upon his girlfriend. “Sure, that sounds good.” He spoke slowly, deliberately, for the first time since he arrived, paying attention to every syllable that left his mouth. “Just answer me one question and then I’ll be out of your hair.”

 

“Sure,” Marissa agreed readily, eager to leave the tension of the morning behind. While there might not have been a literal storm raging above her, its thunder waking her, the emotions her boyfriend’s impromptu visit had stirred in her were no less as terrifying or cloudy.

 

“Why are you here… with my brother?”

 

“I fell asleep,” she answered simply. Lifting her chin with confidence, the photography student expanded. “I was helping a friend study, and it got late. The next thing I know, you’re here, surprising me.”

 

“Right,” the brunette nodded, turning around and walking back towards the apartment’s door, opening it before he said anything else with his suddenly cold and calculating voice. “That makes perfect sense. I’ll see you next weekend.”

 

With that, he left, neither Ryan nor Marissa saying goodbye to their guest. Quiet descended over them in the tiny kitchen, and they didn’t feel the need to break it. Finally, he twisted around to face her, a small grin on his face. “So,” the future lawyer drawled out, “do you want the shower first or should I take it?”

 

“Go ahead,” she offered, returning his smile. “I’m going to head out and pick us up some breakfast.”

 

It was that simple. As he went back towards his bedroom, stripping off his sweatshirt as he walked, she picked up her purse and left the apartment, their routine falling right back into place as if it had never been disturbed.


	5. Chapter Five

**Shadows Have Offended**

 

**Chapter Five**

**OCFF#7: Red Velvet.**

 

For Marissa, there was nothing as beautiful as red light. Many artists preferred the gentle glow of candles, and some photographers claimed the natural rays of the setting sun over the ocean provided them with their most captivating pictures, but, for her, even a dull smile seemed brilliant under the hues of a red light, even the most lackluster eyes glowed like jewels in a darkroom, and, under a safelight, even the saddest, most inexpressive faces came to life. Although she had digital cameras and used Adobe Photoshop while at school, the convenience of being able to complete her assignments in the comfort of her own room outweighing her love for actually developing her own pictures, when she was at home, the first thing she did after seeing the ocean was retreat and hide herself away in the darkroom her parents had given her for her fifteenth birthday in the basement of her childhood home.

 

However, unlike the past, for the first time in her life, she was allowing someone to share in what she considered magical experience. Seth had always been curious about her darkroom, claiming it was the perfect place for them to sneak off and make out, but she had been adamant that he stay away from her private sanctuary. Not only was making out the very last thing on her mind when she was developing photos, but she knew her boyfriend. He was the clumsiest, most accident prone person known to mankind, and, as soon as she would have allowed him into the darkroom with her, he would have spilled a tub of solution, wasting expensive chemicals she could barely afford in the first place and ruining a batch of pictures. But Ryan was a completely different story.

 

After driving home from college with him the night before, they had arrived in Newport late. Everyone had already been in bed, so, instead of waking his parents and her Mom, they had agreed to catch a few hours of sleep and spend time with their families over breakfast. While he had disappeared into the Cohen’s poolhouse, she had grabbed one of his sweatshirts and ambled down to her next door neighbor’s small strip of private beach, spending the last few hours of that November day immersed and transfixed by the sight, smell, and sound of the ocean. Even though she had not slept a wink the night before, being so close to the sea seemed to have rejuvenated her, and, while they worked together developing roll after roll of film, the last thing she felt was tired.

 

Sure, the exhaustion would hit her later that night. Seth would want to go out, he would beg and plead with her to give in and allow him to take her to some new, hot club, and she would relent, but, while he went off and enjoyed himself, she would curl up into a ball on a couch, yawn her way through the evening, and, eventually, annoy her boyfriend until the point where they got into a fight. It was inevitable, and, although she never looked forward to disagreeing and bickering with Seth, it was a price she was willing to pay if it allowed her to do what she wanted that afternoon.

 

She was so lost in thought, that wasn’t paying much attention to the photos she and Ryan were developing. If she had, she would have dug through her bag of unexposed film, searching for rolls she knew contained less photos of her newly made friend, but she was distracted, so, without realizing it, the only face staring back at her from the row after row of drying pictures was the man’s standing beside her. Luckily, because she had been practicing the art of photography for so long, she could develop the film without much thought. The actions were routine, and she could focus on the developing process without really stepping outside her mind. At just the right time, the photos were lifted and immersed in the next liquid. They were studiously exposed, dried to perfection, and, in the end, despite her distraction, a fitting example of how beautiful her work could be. Unfortunately for Marissa, Ryan was not as absorbed by the process, and he quickly became aware of her rather obsessive habit of taking his picture.

 

“Are these for an assignment?”

 

“No,” she answered immediately, not thinking about her response. “These are just my personal pictures. Why?”

 

He turned his back towards her for a second as he went to hang up another photograph, and, although she couldn’t see his face, the young freshman could hear the amusement in his voice. “I was just surprised by how many of them I’m in.”

 

Instantly, she was embarrassed. “Oh… well, you see,” the eighteen year old hedged, avoiding his gaze as he came back to stand next to her at the developing table. Taking several rapid breaths but still feeling as if all the viable air in the room had suddenly been stolen, she attempted to reign in her emotions, not understanding why they were so out of control in the first place. Nervously, with a shaking hand, she tucked a non-existent loose hair behind her ear before finally answering. “Your face, it photographs well.”

 

“So you’re saying I should model?”

 

If she wasn’t so self-conscious by their conversation and his questioning of her choice of subjects, she would have heard the teasing tone in his voice. Instead, she quickly dismissed his suggestion. “No, you’re way too short, not to mention the first time they tried to make you wear something a little left of center, you would probably go off and try to punch the designer.”

 

“Well, that’s a relief,” Ryan pretended to sigh gratefully, “seeing as how I’ve already invested four and half years into becoming a lawyer.”

 

“What I meant,” the photography major explained, ignoring his joking comments, “was that, because of the angles of your face, when the light hits it, I get amazing contrast, especially in black and white. Plus, your eyes are bright enough that I don’t have to worry about their vibrancy not transferring onto the film without color. Not to mention the fact that we spend a lot of our time together, so I guess it just made sense for me to take your picture. Besides, you’re my friend. I always snap a lot of pictures of my friends.”

 

Elbowing her playfully, he taunted, “so you’re saying that you simply settled for me because I was always around.”

 

“Of course, Atwood,” Marissa scoffed, returning his humor. “As if I would actually want a thousand images of your ugly mug floating around. In fact, I’m considering selling them on campus. I think they’d be an amazing deterrent to rodents.”

 

“Aren’t we enterprising?”

 

“Well,” she drawled out, giggling, “I am, though I’m loath to admit this, Julie Cooper’s daughter. You can’t spend eighteen years of your life with that woman without learning a few things about making money.”

 

After sharing a laugh, they both settled back down into working, their routine returning just as smoothly as they had first found it, but, even without Ryan’s ragging words penetrating her defenses, she could not forget his innocent question that had brought up the whole conversation in the first place. Why had she taken so many pictures of him? When she had responded that he photographed well, she hadn’t been lying; his strong jaw and proportioned face truly did lend itself to photography well. But there was more to it. Yes, they were good friends and practically inseparable, so he was around quite often for her to take pictures of, but, as an artist, she had to be inspired by her subjects; there had to be something about them that urged her to pick up her camera and snap away, and, while she had been telling the truth when she admitted that she often took pictures of her friends, never had she ever taken so many photographs of the same person. Not even in all the years that she had been dating Seth had she managed to take as many snapshots of him as she had of Ryan in the three months that they had been hanging out together.

 

He was attractive. Even if she wanted to deny the fact, it would be impossible. Anyone with eyes could see that both his looks and charm lent themselves to a surprisingly strong level of magnetism. From the moment she had first met Ryan Atwood, she had considered him cute. As a gangling pre-teenager, his mere presence had been able to make her feel even more awkward. She would laugh a little louder, blush a little deeper, and stumble over her words a little bit more when he was around her… not that, in the first few years that he had lived with the Cohens, he had spent much time hanging out with his newly adopted brother and Seth’s geeky best friend. Time went on, and they both grew older, but never had her reaction to his looks deviated past the positive. In her eyes, he had gone from cute to handsome to downright freaking gorgeous, but, now that they were friends, she was starting to see that not only was he outwardly beautiful but just as magnificent on the inside as well.

 

The problem was that she shouldn’t be realizing such things about him. He was her boyfriend’s older brother; he was forbidden, wrong, not only unattainable but practically illegal. She loved Seth, so the question was why did she find herself spending so much time with Ryan? Why would she dream about him at night, call him when she had a bad day, and think about him in the middle of a boring lecture instead of the boy she was supposed to want to spend the rest of her life with? Why was she taking so many pictures of someone who could only be her friend and nothing more when there were millions of people in San Francisco who could capture her artist’s eye?

 

The questions themselves were frightening, and the fact that she didn’t have any answers for them was even more frightening. The one thing that reassured her was the fact that she was the only one who was confused. Without a doubt, she knew that Ryan could never be having the same thoughts about her, so, even though the realization that she wasn’t on his mind as much as he was on hers depressed her slightly, it was also comforting, because it made it clear that nothing would ever come from her slight obsession with the older law student. With time, it would fade, pass away, and she would someday laugh about it in private, for no one was ever going to know about it. For now, she would simply ride the wave out, attempt to stay on her board, and wait for calmer waters to arrive.

 

“Marissa?”

 

The sound of her own name being yelled in the small confines of the dark room made her jump. If it wasn’t for Ryan’s steadying grip around her wrists, she would have dropped a picture, ruining it. Regaining control, she offered him a stiff smile before asking, “what?”

 

“Where were you for the past five minutes,” he asked, never giving her a chance to respond before continuing. “I’ve been trying to get your attention, but you were completely lost somewhere in your own thoughts.”

 

“Oh,” she breathed out, eyes wide with surprise and mortification.

 

“So?”

 

“So,” she repeated, unsure of what he was pressing her for.

 

Chuckling, Ryan repeated, “where were you?”

 

Marissa responded with the very first thing she thought of, “surfing,” and, luckily, it wasn’t a complete lie.

 

“I didn’t even know you could surf.”

 

“I can’t really,” she shared, shrugging her shoulders in a self-effacing way. “I’ve tried to. When I was little, Sandy would take Seth and I out and try to teach us, but he was too uncoordinated, and I was always too distracted by the water. I like watching other people surf though, and I understand the sport, but I’ve come to realize that I’m meant to be a spectator and not a participant.”

 

“Aw,” he sympathized, grinning in her direction, “like me and golf.”

 

“Yes,” the photography major giggled, recalling several images of the older man attempting to swing a golf club. “Exactly.” Refocusing, she turned their conversation to a different subject. “So, why were you trying to get my attention? Did you need help with something?”

 

“No, nothing like that,” Ryan reassured her. “I just wanted to thank you for inviting me to spend the day with you. I’ve never done this before,” he explained, gesturing towards the four tubs of solution in front of them, the magnifying machine, and the drying pictures. “It was fun.”

 

“I’m glad you enjoyed it.” Deciding to be as forthright as he was, she confessed, “you know, you’re the first person I’ve ever trusted enough to allow in here with me.”

 

“Really?”

 

“Yeah,” she whispered, uncomfortable, once again, with the direction their conversation had turned to. Unfortunately, she had no one to blame the awkwardness on that time but herself and her big, candid mouth. “My parents never had the patience to listen to their daughter, so I knew they’d never take my instructions seriously, Caitlyn could are less about spending time with me, Seth would have destroyed something, and all my other friends in high school had more interest in going shopping or getting exfoliated than helping me to develop negatives.”

 

Without a hint of amusement, he stated, “their loss.”

 

“I guess,” she agreed hesitantly, insecurely. Lightening the mood, she taunted him, “but, now that I’ve gotten you in here, I should warn you. I might just make you my full time assistant.”

 

“Is the pay good?”

 

“No,” she laughed, rolling her eyes. “You would definitely have to work for free.”

 

“What about benefits,” he pushed, reaching out and taking her hands in his, stopping both of their previous actions. “Bonuses?”

 

Instantly, she was flustered, and she mumbled her next words. “I don’t know what you mean?”

 

“What I mean, Cooper, is what do I get for helping you?” She couldn’t answer. Hell, even if she wanted to, her mind could not form a thought during that charged, butterflies twirling in her stomach moment. “Well, if you’re not going to answer me, I guess I’m just going to have to take what I want from you,” Ryan finally threatened.

 

Before she realized what was happening, he pulled her body to rest tightly against his own, leaned his head towards hers, and kissed her lips so very softly she nearly cried at the delicate touch. No one had ever been that gentle with her. Their embrace was like a fluttering of fairy wings against her mouth, a whispering of a shadow moving against her lips. It was magical, and, as soon as the embrace ended, she realized that he felt just like velvet – sinful, decadent, wickedly illicit velvet.


	6. Chapter Six

**Shadows Have Offended**

 

**Chapter Six**

**OCFF#8: We’ll take a cup o’kindness yet.**

 

He was sloshed – shitfaced, fall down, completely inebriated drunk, and it felt so damn good. After weeks of feeling lost, as if his whole world had totally stopped on its axis and, somehow, managed to turn around and start spinning backwards, it was good to know something for a fact. In that moment, it didn’t matter to him that all the important relationships in his life were changing, that he was going to be facing a major, probably cataclysmic hangover in the morning, and that, currently, his face was resting in a pile of his own vomit. All that mattered was getting the bartender to serve him another drink.

 

“Buddy,” he bellowed, lifting his face up long enough to attempt to make eye contact with the older, larger, sober man. When he failed, he simply gave up, allowing his head to fall back onto the mahogany countertop with a resounding whack. “Another round,” he ordered, sweeping his right hand out to indicate the entire bar, “for me and all my new friends.”

 

“It’s Eddie, kid, and I cut you off hours ago.”

 

“But, I’m good for it,” Seth promised, burping loudly in the process.

 

“I’m sure you are,” the bartender sympathized, “but your brother promised me he would double your tab when he got here if I made sure you didn’t go anywhere and that you didn’t drink anymore.”

 

“Ryan should just mind his own fucking business,” the curly haired brunette complained. “This is all his fault anyway.”

 

“Do you want to tell me about it?”

 

Surprised by the offer, the eighteen year old physically lifted his head from the bar top, holding it up with his fists. The older man across from him was finishing up his shift, cleaning out glass beer mugs and sweeping up the peanut shells and bottle caps from behind the counter. Although he looked tired, the exhaustion fit him well, as if he was used to it. Knowing what his job entailed, Seth figured he was, but he also saw a spark of curiosity in the balding man’s gaze, so, despite the fact that he knew the other man was offering to listen to his troubles as a means of distraction until Ryan got there, he opened up anyway. After all, the guy was nice enough, and he certainly didn’t want any trouble considering the fact that he had used a fake ID to purchase all the alcohol he had consumed that night.

 

Sighing, he started his tale, “have you ever been in love, Freddie?”

 

The bartender chuckled but said little else while he contemplated the question. Finally, he responded, “once or twice.”

 

“Well, I have,” Seth confessed. “I’ve been dating my girlfriend since we were in middle school. I thought we’d always be together.”

 

Tilting his head to the side, the older man questioned, “you broke up?”

 

“Not exactly.” Falling silent for a minute, the college student pondered his next words before continuing. “I go to school out east, and my girlfriend goes to school up in San Francisco.”

 

“Long distance relationships are difficult,” the balding man sympathized.

 

“No truer words have ever been spoken, Franklin,” Seth agreed wholeheartedly, bobbing his head in concurrence. “But I thought our relationship was strong enough to survive it, you know,” he pressed on, “and it would have been, too, but then my brother came along.”

 

“Is he trying to steal your girl from you? I’ve gotta say, that’s pretty low.”

 

“You know, I’m not really sure what’s going on between Ryan and Marissa. All that I know is that, before she moved to San Francisco and started hanging out with my brother, our relationship was on track, and, now, just a few months later, things are a mess.” Allowing a harsh tone to infiltrate his voice, he admitted, “you know, I caught them together.”

 

The bartender whistled loudly. “This Marissa chick cheated on with your own brother? Dude, that’s just wrong.”

 

“Hank, have you been listening to anything that I’ve said so far? No, she didn’t cheat on me… at least I don’t think so.” Rolling his eyes, Seth explained, “I flew out to San Fran during my fall break to surprise her, but, instead of finding her in her dorm, I found her at my brother’s place – asleep at his kitchen table. They had been studying together.”

 

The older man simply stopped what he was doing and observed his lone customer for several confused moments. Finally, he asked, “so all of this is because you’re jealous that your brother and girlfriend are friends? I thought most guys wanted their families to get along with their significant others?”

 

“I did… I do,” the curly haired kid protested, knocking his head roughly against the wood of the bar. “It’s just… they looked too close, you know, like they were hiding something. I don’t think that Marissa would cheat on me, and I don’t think that my brother would intentionally go after my girlfriend, but it just caught me by surprise. They were never close before, but then, all of a sudden, they’re best friends, study-freaking-buddies.”

 

“Did you confront them about it, ask them what was going on?”

 

“No,” Seth bemoaned, practically growling in frustration. “They dismissed me, sent me home to see my parents. When I went back up to visit them the next weekend, things seemed fine.”

 

“But, based upon the fact that you’re here and you’re drunk, I take it there’s more to the story?”

 

“You’re an astute one,” the younger man applauded his newly found friend, wagging a finger at him. “Were did you get so smart, Tank?” Moving on from his own question without waiting for a response, the college student said, “something happened during Thanksgiving. I don’t know what it was, but, just as quickly as this little friendship started, it seemed to end. Marissa did everything in her power to avoid Ryan. A couple of times I saw them together when they didn’t know I was there, and I watched them, you know, looking for signs of… something. She would refuse to look into his eyes, he would practically beg her to talk to him, and, every time he seemed to get through to her, she’d use me as an excuse, claim that we had some kind of plans that we really didn’t have.”

 

“Well,” Eddie pointed out, “it’s been a month since Thanksgiving. How are they acting around each other now?”

 

“They’re not. For the first time since we were kids, Marissa and her family didn’t spend Christmas with my family. They went on some skiing vacation, so Ryan and Marissa didn’t have a chance to see each other, and I didn’t have a chance to spy on them again.”

 

“And how has she been towards you during the past month?”

 

Screwing up his face, Seth contemplated his answer carefully. “Weird,” he finally stated. “On one hand, she seems more attentive. She calls me at least once a day, emails me jokes, and, when other people are around, she’s more… _demonstrative_ of her feelings… if you know what I mean.”

 

“Please,” the bartender begged, “spare me the details.”

 

The younger kid simply ignored him. “But, despite all her increased efforts, she’s not really there. When she’s with me, there’s a piece of her missing, and, even though she’s trying so hard to be the girlfriend I want, the girlfriend she used to be for me, I can tell that she’s still holding me at arm’s length.”

 

“So, after all your observation, what do you think happened?”

 

“I think one of them made a move on the other one, Tyson, that’s what I think. I don’t know if they were drunk, lonely, or confused, and I don’t know if the other one reciprocated the move or pushed them away, and I don’t know who initiated it, but someone did something that doesn’t fit under the study-buddy rules.”

 

Finished with his work, the balding man came around the bar and sat down a few stools away from the drunken college student. “And, in your heart, who do you think betrayed you?”

 

“That’s just it, I have no idea. Hell, I’m not even sure I want to know,” Seth exclaimed. “He’s my brother, my only brother, the guy who’s been there to support me, stick up for me, and give me advice since I was a kid, and she’s my best friend, my first love, the woman I thought I’d spend the rest of my life with. How do I choose between them? Tell me, Bryan,” he beseeched the older man, “how do I do this?”

 

“You ask them, point blank,” the bartender suggested easily. “It’s your only option. Sitting here, drinking yourself stupid, and crying about your problems isn’t going to solve anything.”

 

“Ah, but you see,” Seth responded, “I hate confrontation. A part of me believes that I would be better off, happier, if I just simply forgot about these past few months, if I let it all go.” Gesturing both his arms out in a wide arc, he pushed, “sweep it under the provial… proverb… proberbial…”

 

“Proverbial,” Eddie supplied.

 

“Exactly – that rug.”

 

“You can try to,” the older man agreed, “but it’ll never work.” As his customer’s head fell back onto the bar, he pressed. “Someday, if you end up married to this girl, something will happen, and it’ll bring up all your doubts, all your questions, all your insecurities. Maybe you’ll see her and your brother talking softly to each other and looking intimate together, or maybe she’ll start avoiding your home and staying out late at night, claiming she’s at work or spending time with her friends, and, even if she’s not lying to you, these old suspicions will come back stronger and more dangerous than ever before. Imagine if you have children together, and, ten years down the line, you find out that she did try something with your brother, not only will it break up your marriage, but it’ll break up your family, too. No, kid, you need to get to the bottom of this now.” When there was no reply, he stood up on the bottom rung of his stool and leaned over to poke Seth in the shoulder. “Kid?”

 

The only response he received was a loud, drunken snore and the opening of the door behind him.

 

Turning around in his seat, he observed the newcomer. “So, you must be Ryan?”

 

As the blonde answered, the bartender could hear the wariness in his voice. Obviously, the older brother had picked up on his less-than-friendly tone. “Yeah, and you are?”

 

“A friend of Seth’s.”

 

“Alright,” Ryan drawled out. “Listen, it’s late, and I need to get him home before our parents realize he’s missing and get worried, so can I just settle his tab and get him out of here, please?”

 

“You’re a compassionate one, aren’t you,” Eddie observed, standing up and moving behind the counter.

 

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

 

“It means that your only sibling was so upset about his life that he came here to get drunk and find someone he could talk to, and, instead of being worried about him, you’re more concerned about cleaning up this little mess and forgetting that it happened.”

 

“Well, considering the fact that my brother is eighteen, yeah, I am a little pissed off about having to drag his lying ass out a bar at three in the morning.”

 

His words took the balding man by surprise, and he stopped what he was doing. “Did you say eighteen?”

 

“You don’t get many college students in here, do you,” Ryan retorted instead of answering the question. “My suggestion to you would be to find someone who’s good at fingering fake ID’s and hire them as of yesterday.”

 

“Damn it!”

 

Releasing a sigh full of regret, the blonde scrubbed a hand roughly through his hair. “Look, I’m sorry. This, what Seth did, is not your fault, and I’m thankful that you called me to pick him up. I wouldn’t want him taking a cab like this, and I certainly wouldn’t want him driving. I’ll come by again tomorrow to pick up his car, because I’m sure he’ll be out of commission for at least the next twenty-four hours.”

 

As the two men silently exchanged money, Eddie watched the younger guy standing on the other side of the bar from him. Finally, he spoke up, “you’re not a bad guy. I can see that, but, whatever the hell is going on between you and your brother’s girl, you better figure it out quick before all three of you get hurt.”

 

“Seth talked to you about Marissa?”

 

“That’s all he could talk about for the past forty minutes,” the bartender said. “I don’t know what happened between you and this chick, but the two of you hurt him, you know?”

 

“We didn’t,” Ryan started before stopping, clearing his throat, and averting his eyes. “It’s not what you think.”

 

“Listen, kid, I know that you didn’t sleep with her. From what your brother told me, I can tell that neither of you are the types to do that while she’s involved with another guy, especially since he’s your younger brother, but you like her, don’t you?”

 

“Let me put it this way for you,” the younger man smirked before pressing on. “If like was a wine cooler, then what I’m feeling is more on par with a bottle of absolute vodka.”

 

“That’s some high proof shit,” Eddie whistled in shock. “And how does the girl feel?”

 

“She’s confused,” Ryan stated simply, shrugging his shoulders. “She loves Seth, she’s loyal to him, and she feels obligated to being with him because of their history.”

 

“But she’s not in love with him anymore,” the bartender realized, nodding compassionately. “She’s in love with you.” Without another word, he quickly made his way back to the patron’s side of the bar and jerked his thumb in Seth’s direction. Come on, kid, I’ll help you get him in the car.”

 

As they moved the passed out eighteen year old outside, Eddie found himself being thankful that he wasn’t in any of their shoes. They had one fucked up situation on their hands, and all he could hope for them was that someone knew what they were doing. He had a feeling, though, that no one did which could only mean one thing: trouble.


	7. Chapter Seven

**Shadows Have Offended**

 

**Chapter Seven**

**OCFF#9: Tracking.**

 

Long before she had discovered photography, Marissa Cooper had wanted to be a stewardess. It had nothing to do with a love for flying or even a penchant for wearing uniforms; instead, the dream was born from listening to her parents fight, something that wasn’t a rare occurrence in the Cooper household while she was growing up. First, her Mom would complain about her Dad never being at home, about him never spending time with his family. Then Jimmy would counter her argument by pointing out that he traveled for his job and that it was his job that allowed their family to live in the lifestyle they were accustomed to. At that point, Julie would erupt, screaming at her husband that he spent more time with the stewardesses he saw on his many flights than he did with her. Marissa always zoned out of their arguments at that point – her mind too focused on the idea of being a stewardess so she could see her Daddy any time she wanted to.

 

But, just like all childhood fantasies, that dream never came true. Unlike with some others, Marissa was quite thankful of that fact. Although she had switched her focus to cameras and film instead of safety instructions and miniature packs of roasted peanuts during middle school, it was in the fall of her sophomore year that the goal of becoming a stewardess went from far-fetched to downright laughable. It was during that year that her parents’ rocky relationship fell apart, that they divorced, and that she found out that even when her Dad didn’t have to travel for business anymore, he still didn’t spend any time with her. With that realization, airplanes and anything associated with them were forever ruined for Marissa.

 

However, sometimes, they were a necessity. Going to see Seth, that made air transportation a must. Even if she did have a car that she could drive if she wanted to, a few hours of being reminded that her father didn’t really want to be a part of her life or her sister’s life was better than a few days of going 65 MPH on what seemed to be a never ending highway, especially since she needed to be back on Monday for class. This wasn’t a planned trip or even a necessary one, but, nonetheless, she was going, because, to put it simply, it just felt right. After months of being indecisive, of not knowing what she wanted, and of questioning herself, Marissa had decided to stop over thinking her life and live in the moment. She was going to do what her heart told her was right and worry about the consequences, be what they may, whenever they decided to knock on her door.

 

She was on a mission.

 

~ } { ~

 

He was on a mission.

 

After a week of being patient, a week of being the better man and putting aside his own wants and desires, a week of not being able to think straight because his mind was too wrapped up in one frustratingly confused blonde haired beauty, Ryan was going after what he wanted, and what he wanted was Marissa.

 

Their ride back to San Francisco had been interesting to say the least. Unlike the awkward silence she had forced them into on their ride home for Christmas break, the silence that surrounded them on the way back to school was almost peaceful. It was obvious that they had both come to some very important decisions while on vacation. The only question was if those decisions would make sense together. A half an hour outside of her dorm room, she had given him hope that their decisions would be compatible when she asked him for one week to make some changes in her life - one week to really listen to her heart so she could hear what exactly it was that she wanted.

 

He had agreed, and, for one week, he had been kicking himself for ever giving her seven long, torturous days to make up her mind. After all, he was confident in his choice, in his feelings, and, at that point, all he wanted was for her to be as well. Not that he wanted to come off as impatient or unsympathetic, but, if she hadn’t realized that she wasn’t in love with Seth yet, the chances were that she was never going to, and he wanted to be able to walk away while he still could, before his heart was too invested to understand and accept that she simply didn’t want him in return.

 

So, six days later, here he was. It was Saturday, and he had more work to catch up on that weekend than he would if he had skipped a whole week’s worth of classes during the middle of a semester, because he had paid absolutely no attention to anything he had been doing during the last 120-some odd hours. He hadn’t taken a single note, he hadn’t opened a single textbook, and he wasn’t even sure if he had managed to brush his teeth every morning and night, for he was that distracted by what her decision was going to be. And it was no use for him to try and get some work done at that point, because, until he knew if it was going to be him or his brother, his mind could only focus on the fact that in a few shorts hours everything he wanted could be handed to him on a silver platter or it could be ripped away with no chance of getting it back.

 

He and his very feminine display of emotional desperation made Ryan sick.

 

But no more.

 

Gathering his keys… and some breath mints, he fled his apartment, slamming the door shut behind his retreating form and not worrying about locking it or making sure that it latched properly. Too nervous to wait for the elevator to arrive, he, instead, ran down flight after flight of stairs, completely ruining the cool and collected appearance he had wanted to present. Practically flinging himself outside his building, Ryan quickly located his car, jumped in, and drove out the parking lot at such an alarming speed, his tires were squealing. If it was the last thing he was going to do, he was going to find Marissa. He was going to find her, he was going to talk to her, and he was going to make damn sure that she chose him. How he was going to do this, the law student wasn’t quite sure, but at least he had someplace to start – the student services center where she normally spent her Saturday mornings putting in some work study hours. If nothing else, Marissa was consistent, and consistency led to predictability which was, at the moment, his current best friend.

 

~ } { ~

 

Settling into her coach seat, Marissa closed her eyes and attempted to go to sleep. After the redeye she had taken earlier, she was in desperate need of the rest, especially since the past week had proven to be quite difficult on her nerves. Monday night she had tossed and turned so much, her roommate, who was, surprisingly, actually in the room with her that evening, had left to go somewhere else. Tuesday, she had attempted to physically exhaust herself to the point where she would collapse as soon as her head touched the pillow, but it didn’t work, and she ended up struggling through another fitful night. Wednesday she simply went to the 24 hour computer lab and worked on some upcoming school work, losing herself in class assignments instead of focusing on her own life. Thursday saw a Marissa ready to drop dead of absolute emotional fatigue. She had taken some medicine that was supposed to make her drowsy despite not being sick, but it didn’t work, so, by the time Friday rolled around, she was determined to do whatever it took to cure her insomnia. With that in mind, she had booked a flight and started to mentally prepare herself for the encounter she was going to have with her boyfriend.

 

But now it was over. She had seen Seth, she had finally managed to truly talk to him for the first time in months, and, one way or another, she was one step closer to figuring out her life, but, still, sleep would not come. She couldn’t blame the plane. It wasn’t overly crowded, there were no screaming babies to contend with, and the stewardesses were leaving her alone, probably realizing that all she wanted to do was sleep. After all, it wouldn’t take a rocket scientist or even the plane’s captain to figure out how tired she was. Her face was pale and withdrawn, her eyes had large, almost frighteningly dark bags underneath them, and her body appeared weary to the point of almost passing out. Still, though, her mind wouldn’t give her any peace or quiet.

 

Over and over again on a constant lope, Seth’s parting words kept repeating themselves in her brain, their repercussions reverberating through her body only to find their way to her heart, making it ache worse than ever it had before.

 

_If you ever loved me at all_ , he had beseeched her. _Promise me one thing. Promise me,_ Seth had practically demanded of her, his eyes deep poles of misery, _that, no matter what, you will never be with him – you will never be with my brother. Anyone,_ he had entreated her, _anyone_ _but Ryan._

 

Everything else they had said to each other was spoken through kindness and generosity. There had been no yelling, no fighting. Their breakup had been affable, and, once the relationship had ended, they both had admitted that it had been time. So, when Seth had shown her to the door, leaving her with those parting words that had the power to haunt her for the rest of her life, Marissa had been shocked by his request. Not only had she not been expecting it, but she thought that Seth was a bigger person than that, that he had left his adolescence behind and had finally become a man.

 

She had been wrong.

 

But, still, she had also promised.

 

~ } { ~

 

She wasn’t at work, she wasn’t in the library, or the gym, or the café that she loved to sit at and read on cloudy Saturday afternoons, and she wasn’t in the park. She wasn’t meeting with any of her professors, and she wasn’t answering her cell phone. He had checked all their favorite hangouts, even going so far as to look up the numbers of some of her other friends to call them and ask if they had seen her. They hadn’t. In every out of the way and unusual place he had thought to look at, Marissa was not there. After hours of searching, Ryan realized that he wasn’t going to find her, that she was either hiding from him or had been abducted by aliens, and, seeing as how she wasn’t a _Reese’s Pieces_ kind of girl, if he had a dime to spare, he would bet on the former.

 

The only option he had left was to wait her out, so, with that thought in mind, he drove to her dorm room, ran up the stairs to her floor, and knocked on the door just in case her roommate was home. If not, if the often MIA girl was off somewhere else as was often the case, Ryan would simply use the key Marissa had given him and let himself in. No matter what, he was going to wait for her to come home – even if he was there all night and all the next day.

 

But he didn’t have to use his key, and the photography major’s nocturnal roommate was there.

 

“Yeah,” she greeted him, the loud smacking of her purple gum offering him a momentary distraction. Instead of being anxious about Marissa, the girl before him helped him forget about his nervousness and, instead, made him annoyed.

 

“Do you know where Marissa is?”

 

“Out.”

 

“Do you know when she’ll be back?”

 

“Nope.”

 

“Do you mind if I wait here for her?”

 

“Whatever,” the roommate responded distractedly.

 

Apparently, when chewing an overly large wad of purple gum, one was only capable of one word answers.

 

Becoming frustrated, Ryan blocked the young woman’s path as she attempted to leave. “Can you just… is there anything you can tell me about what’s going on with Marissa? I’ve been looking everywhere for her, I haven’t seen her since last Sunday, and I’m really starting to get worried.”

 

“All I know,” the college freshman finally looked him in the eye, “is that she went to see some guy named Seth. If that means anything to you, well, then you’re one step up on me.”

 

At that point, he let her pass by, but, instead of continuing on his own way into the dorm room, Ryan turned back around, methodically made sure that the door was closed and locked, and moved towards the elevator to wait for the car to approach.

 

He had gotten his answer. It might not have been what he wanted, but, at least, he now knew.


	8. Chapter Eight

**Shadows Have Offended**

 

**Chapter Eight**

**OCFF#10: “I can’t deny the fact that you like me! Right now, you like me!” - Sally Field**

 

** She had no idea what she was doing.  **

 

** Twelve hours ago, she had been prepared for anything… or so she had thought. Boarding the plane for Rhode Island, she had what she had believed to be a full proof plan. She was going to fly out to see her boyfriend, end things with him as amicably as possible, and then fly back to San Francisco to tell Ryan how she felt. Tired of being afraid of her feelings and fed up with putting others first, she had resolved to change. Instead of doing what she thought would make others happy, she was going to make herself happy first, and the rest, she had decided, would just simply take care of itself. At eighteen, there were very few things that Marissa Cooper knew for certain, but that was to be expected. She was still young, she still had so much living left to do, so much left to learn about life, but she was positive of one fact and one fact alone. Her feelings for Ryan were real, and, if she ignored them, she would end up hurting more than just herself.  **

 

** But here she was – standing in front of his apartment door – and nothing was what she had planned. Like always, she had buckled under pressure. When someone she cared about, someone she loved requested that she put her own peace of mind aside for theirs, she had done as she always had. Instead of fighting for what she wanted, she let Seth manipulate her feelings and her loyalty, and she had ended up promising him the impossible. But she had no one to blame but herself. She could have stood up for herself, she could have said no. After all, he didn’t physically threaten her; there was no twisting of her arm involved. All it took was a few carefully crafted words and a healthy dose of guilt, and she, once again, had sacrificed her own joy for someone else’s. The worst part was though that she wasn’t just making stupid choices for herself this time. No, by promising Seth that she would never be with his brother, she had also taken away Ryan’s right to decide his own life, too. That’s what she regretted the most.  **

 

** Although they had never come right out and said how they felt about one another, the photography major knew that Ryan had feelings for her. It was obvious in the way he pushed her to realize that she was no longer in love with Seth, it was obvious in the way he supported her, always wanted to spend time with her, in the way he understood her, it was obvious in the way he looked at her when they were the only two people in the room, and it was obvious in the way he touched her, in the way his lips moved against hers. She had just been too scared, too blind to see it at first, but, for the first time in what might have been years, her eyes were wide open, and, not only did she see his attraction and interest in her, but she could feel it as well. **

 

** And the best part was that everything he felt for her, she reciprocated. But, just when she was ready to admit the truth to him, she went and ruined everything. When all she wanted to do was be with Ryan, to give them a real chance at a relationship, at a future – whatever that may be, she had made a promise to her first love to never be with her current one. She hadn’t been living with the pledge for even twenty-four hours yet, and it was already killing her piece by piece on the inside.  **

 

** How was she supposed to remain in San Francisco when Ryan couldn’t be a part of her life? And, while, sure, Seth had not demanded that she end her friendship with his brother, knowing what she felt for the law student wouldn’t allow Marissa to simply be his friend anymore. The lines were now blurred, and, even if it would make things easier, she didn’t want to be able to see those lines clearly again. Even though it was bittersweet, she would rather hold on to her feelings in private than let them go. Loving someone in secret was better than not loving anyone at all. Of that, she was positive, but what she wasn’t sure about was where she and Ryan were to go next. Was there even a place for them to go?  **

 

** With so many questions floating around her heart and her mind, the eighteen year old knew that she should have gone back to her dorm room. She should have gone to bed, finally gotten the sleep her body craved and deserved so much, and tried to think about her life and the mess she had unintentionally gotten herself into the next morning once she had a clear head, but rationality and sagacity had gone out the window the minute she had made the very promise to Seth that was haunting her. While, logically, she knew it made sense to think about her actions before she did anything foolish, emotionally, she wasn’t ready to give up just yet. Emotionally, she needed closure, she needed comfort, she needed reassurance. Emotionally, she needed Ryan. So, here she was, hand raised and poised to knock on his front door. There were tears in her eyes, and her whole body was trembling slightly. In essence, she was falling apart, and, while she knew that there was nothing Ryan could do to fix the situation, fix the mess she had made, she needed to be with him anyway, even if it hurt them both more in the long run.  **

 

** She truly was a glutton for punishment.  **

 

** So, she knocked and waited for him to answer the door. When he didn’t, she knocked a little harder, using her first instead of her knuckles. It wasn’t too late; there was no way he was already asleep, and, since his car was parked outside in the parking lot, she knew he was home. Figuring he was either distracted or avoiding someone, never once thinking he could be avoiding her, she pounded on his door again, this time using both fists, and called out.  **

 

**“ Ryan, come on, open up. It’s me, Marissa. I need to speak with you. It’s,” she swallowed roughly, willing her sobs away until he was there standing in front of her, his arms stretched out in an offering of security. “It’s important.”**

 

Just as she was about to launch into another plea, the door swung open so rapidly, the young blonde was caught off guard, the breath she was about to take hitching painfully in her throat.

 

“What do you want?”

 

He looked… destroyed. He looked like she felt. His hair was in disarray, knotted and matted and in complete disregard. His clothes were rumpled, displaying a few stains. He hadn’t shaved in a couple of days, and she could tell by the slight swaying of his feet and the glazed look in his eyes that he had been drinking.

 

“Ryan?” His name was the only thing she could manage to say. Everything else – all other thoughts, all other concerns vanished at the sight of the man before her. The last thing on her mind, suddenly, was her own pain, and all she wanted to do was take care of him.

 

“Look.” He warned her, holding up his arms to ward off her advance into the apartment. “I can’t do this right now, so just go home. I know,” he admitted, gulping and blinking his eye lashes at a furious pace to ward off whatever emotion he was feeling in that moment, be it resentment, sadness, or a mixture of the two. “I know about your trip to Rhode Island, I know all about your decision, and I know why you’re here, so you don’t have to worry about telling me anything. Just leave, Marissa.”

 

“You know?”

 

His next words were painful for her to hear, but she could tell by watching the twenty-two year old before her that they were even more painful for him to say. Their intonation and severe pronunciation revealed the depth of Ryan’s emotions. “I know.”

 

“But how,” she found herself asking, demanding. “How do you know about any of this? It doesn’t make sense. I’ve been gone for less than a day. I left this morning, and I’m already back. How did you find out everything that happened already? No body knows except… oh my god.” Realization dawned. Whispering in a strangled manner, she said one more word, one more name. “Seth.”

 

“Yes, Seth,” he taunted, becoming angry and hitting the wall beside the door, startling her. “Seth, Seth, SETH! Every goddamned thing is about Seth, and I don’t want to hear it.”

 

“I can’t believe he would do this to me, to you,” she breathed out, shocked. “I knew that he was hurt, that he was mad despite what he claimed to the contrary, but to do this, to purposely try to hurt you…”

 

“Marissa, what are you talking about?”

 

Infuriated at the situation… or what he believed the situation to be, she yelled, “he called you to gloat, to hold over your head that stupid promise that I made him.” Just as quickly as her fury appeared, it left, leaving her drained and regretful. “He didn’t even give me the chance to tell you myself.”

 

“Wait, hold on a second,” the future attorney asked of her, shaking his cloudy head in an attempt to clear his mind. “What promise? I don’t understand…”

 

“After I flew out there to see him, to break up with him in person, he doesn’t even have the common decency, no the respect for me to give me the opportunity to…”

 

“Marissa, wait,” Ryan beseeched her. Taking her by the arm, he gently led her into his apartment, closing the door and locking it behind them. Wordlessly, he guided her into the living room, sitting her down in front of him on the couch while he took a seat on the coffee table. “Start from the beginning. Did you just say that you broke up with my brother?”

 

“Yes, but I thought you already knew that?”

 

“Apparently,” he said, his eyes wide with astonishment, “I don’t know anything. I thought you flew out to Rhode Island to spend some time with Seth, to tell him that you chose him, that you want to be with him.”

 

“Oh, no,” the photography major quickly reassured the confused but hopeful man before her. Smiling crookedly through her tears, she confessed, “I want to be with you, Ryan.”

 

And that’s where her explanations stopped. Before she could say another word, he was kissing her, his mouth fused to hers, begging, pleading, imploring her to return the embrace, and she couldn’t help but give in… at least for a few moments. Their second kiss wasn’t anything like their first. While the first was passionate despite its gentle and delicate touches, their second kiss was searing, mind numbing, and all she could think about while his mouth moved across hers was getting closer to him, was of wrapping herself around him, never letting go, and surrounding herself with the man she could finally admit she was falling in love with… if she wasn’t already in love with him. But she couldn’t let him love her, and she wasn’t allowed to love him. She had promised.

 

“Wait, stop,” she ordered, moving her hands up to Ryan’s wife beater clad chest so she could push him away, but, instead, as if her fingers had a mind of their own, the eighteen year old looked down at her long, slender digits and found them wrapped in the material of his shirt, pulling him even closer to her. “We can’t do this.”

 

“You’re right,” he agreed, surprising her. “This isn’t right, not here.”

 

Puzzled by his words and still reeling from their fiery embrace, it took Marissa several seconds to realize that she wasn’t sitting anymore and that they were moving out of the living room, that she was in Ryan’s arms and he was carrying her towards his bedroom. “No,” she argued, protesting despite the fact that she wrapped her arms around his neck and held on to him tighter. “You don’t understand. I made a promise to Seth that we wouldn’t do this, that I wouldn’t be with you.”

 

It was like her words were a bucket of ice cold water. As soon as they left her mouth, the law student stopped in his tracks just at the threshold of his room. “Say that again.”

 

“I promised Seth that we would never be together.” Watching the rage enter Ryan’s eyes and start to distort his handsome face into a sneering, livid mask, she quickly went on to clarify. “Everything was going great. He agreed that we needed to break up, that it had been over between us for a while, but, then, as I was leaving, he started pleading with me, saying that if I ever loved him before that I would agree to never be with you.” Squeezing her eyes shut to ward off the fresh wave of tears, Marissa finished her explanation by murmuring, “and I did. I promised.”

 

“I don’t care.”

 

They were the last coherent words either of them would speak for hours. Everything seemed to happen in a whirl, and, before the young woman realized what was happening, she was falling asleep in the arms of the man she loved. Her nude body was vibrating with sensations she had never felt before, and her heart felt as if it was going to burst from sheer bliss. In the back of her mind, she knew that she had broken her promise… that she had broken her promise already more than once and it had been mere hours since she had made it, but, with Ryan beside her, his soft, rhythmic, content breathing lulling her into a sense of belonging and tranquility, she didn’t care. Even if it meant they had to keep their relationship a secret, she would do it. It was selfish, it was cruel, and it was inevitably going to hurt the very people they loved the most in the world, but, if it meant they got to be together, then so be it.

 

Their love for each other might have been forbidden, even wrong, but never had being wrong felt so right.


	9. Chapter Nine

**Shadows Have Offended**

 

**Chapter Nine**

**OCFF#11: Step on a crack; break your mother’s back.**

 

She tried to be a hand’s on mother without suffocating her children. After all, in their eyes and even the eyes of the law, they were adults, capable of taking care of themselves, but there is no magic day when a mother simply stopped parenting. In fact, in Kirsten Cohen’s case, her worry meter seemed to be on overdrive now that both of her sons were away at school. Without them close to her physically, she wasn’t able to watch out for them. Sure, she could call, but the chances of getting a twenty-two year old or an eighteen year old to answer their phone were slim to none. So, she had to fret about whether or not they were getting enough to eat and if what they were eating was healthy. She feared them getting sick when she wasn’t there to take care of them, and, perhaps, most importantly, she worried about the types of decisions they were making as men.

 

She wasn’t naïve. She knew that both of her boys were attractive men who were drawn to equally attractive but, in her opinion, more dangerous women. They dated – had been for years, but, suddenly, the roles were reversed, and she was left playing catch up. Instead of Seth being in a committed relationship, he was now single and taking full advantage of it. Unlike Ryan, her youngest child wasn’t as wise to the world, and she was afraid someone was going to come along and hurt him – badly – if Marissa hadn’t already accomplished that feat. And then there was her oldest son.

 

Unlike Seth, he had always shied away from committed relationships, preferring to date loosely with very few long term obligations and absolutely no responsibilities towards the opposite sex. However, despite him being even more closed off about his feelings than usual, her mother’s intuition told her that something had changed. It was in the little things that she noticed the differences – his tone of voice, his unavailability for catch-up phone conversations, his sudden lack of interest in coming home on breaks. For the past four years, Ryan had always gone back to Newport to spend his week of spring break with his family, but, that year, he had begged off, claiming he simply had too much work to do.

 

Sandy, always gullible when it came to their sons’ shenanigans, believed him without a question or comment to the contrary, launching into a long winded diatribe about his good old days back in law school and how he remembered not even having enough time for his friends, let alone his parents, but she wasn’t fooled. No, if anything, she remembered her husband’s college days more vividly than he did, simply because her memories weren’t clouded with herbal smoke. Sandy had been too busy to go home to visit his family, because he had been spending all his spare time with her, making the mother of two realize that her own son was keeping a very important secret from her.

 

It wasn’t the fact that he was seriously dating someone that bothered her. No, actually, Kirsten was relieved to see that Ryan was capable of being a one woman man. She had feared for many years that he would be perpetual bachelor, leaving it up to Seth to make her a grandmother someday. No, what bothered her was the fact that he felt it necessary to keep his relationship a secret, and that made her fear just what kind of woman… or girl her oldest son had taken up with.

 

So, that’s why she was currently in San Francisco, ignoring her husband’s warnings to leave Ryan alone to live his own life and butting her nose into his business even though it didn’t belong there. After all, in her eyes, he was still her little boy, and, if her intervention was needed, than so be it. She would rather be the nagging mother who made sure his heart… and health were safe than his blindly supportive friend, and, with that in mind, she opened her tasteful designer purse, pulled out the copy of his key she had made the very first time he had come home that previous fall, and let herself into his apartment.

 

Immediately, she knew there was another female presence there.

 

His home did not look like a bachelor pad. In fact, if she didn’t know better, she would have thought that he had a live-in girlfriend, but Kirsten knew that, despite the fact her son was keeping a less than platonic relationship a secret from her, he would never move another person, let alone a woman, into the apartment she paid for him to live in. Ryan was more respectful for her than that, because she had raised him to be that way. But, still, there was no denying the feminine touches to the room. There were fresh flowers on the kitchen table, throw pillows and afghans tossed haphazardly on the couch, and, unless her oldest son had taken to cross dressing which was so far beyond the realm of her imagination she couldn’t even contemplate the idea, then the girl Ryan was dating had left a pair of shoes underneath the coffee table in the living room.

 

Waiting for several minutes to hear some kind of noise come from the apartment, she became satisfied with the quiet and surmised that no one was home. After all, it was the middle of the afternoon during spring break. Even a twenty-two year old, soon to be twenty-three year old, law student would be awake at that point in the day, and, despite the fact that she wanted to see her son, Kirsten was quite pleased with the opportunity to sneak around the apartment by herself for a little while, knowing that if she was diligent enough, she would be able to find even more proof to support her theory of Ryan having a girlfriend.

 

Her next stop was the bathroom, and it only confirmed her suspicions. Feminine hygiene products, sweet smelling perfumes, lotions, and body washes, and an open, tossed aside, empty box of condoms told her that her son’s girlfriend spent quite a bit of time there, and the two of them were doing more than watching movies or studying together. In fact, she had so much evidence to confront her oldest child with, that she wasn’t even going to snoop through his bedroom, but, when she heard movement coming from the only unsearched room in the apartment, she changed her mind quickly enough and made her way down the short hallway. What she saw was the very last thing she expected - her oldest son was in bed with her youngest son’s ex-girlfriend.

 

Over her dead body!

 

Stepping into the darkened room, she slammed the door shut, waking both formerly sleeping college students up, and, without preamble, she immediately started in on the attack. “Well, this certainly explains a few things.”

 

“What the hell are you doing here?”

 

Not to be deterred by Ryan’s anger, she turned the question back on him, pointing towards a sheet clenching, wide eyed Marissa Cooper. “I think the better question would be what the hell is she doing here?”

 

“I invited her,” her blonde haired son returned, equally as irate. “Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for you.”

 

“You don’t need an invitation to visit when you pay for the apartment.”

 

Without meeting her gaze, Marissa started to climb out of the bed, her face suffused with red hued embarrassment and conveniently covered with her long, golden hair. “I think I should leave. You two need to talk… alone.”

 

Despite the fact that she was relieved to notice the girl was at least dressed – albeit scantily – underneath the bedding she had been previously holding to her chest so tightly, Kirsten was not about to let her escape so easily. “Oh, I don’t think so, young lady. I have a few things I want to say to you, too.”

 

“Leave Marissa out of this,” Ryan demanded, standing up and pulling on a pair of sweats over his boxers before advancing in her direction. “You’re mad at me, so take your anger out on me. She did nothing wrong.”

 

“Nothing wrong,” the mother of two parroted, disbelief at her oldest child’s words dripping from her own statement. “How can you say that? She went from one brother to the next without even having the decency to wait a few months. In my book, there’s nothing right about that.”

 

“Well, in my book,” the law student retorted icily, “your opinion doesn’t matter. Marissa never once cheated on Seth. When she moved here last fall, they were already having problems, and she was having a hard time adjusting to being away from home. We got close, became good friends, and, eventually, I realized that I had feelings for her, but, still, I didn’t act upon them. Instead, we kept things strictly platonic between us. I mean, sure, I tried to show her that her feelings for Seth had changed, but it wasn’t until Thanksgiving that things started to get blurry. I kissed her when we were home together on break, but she pulled away before the embrace could be deepened, flew out to Rhode Island in January to end things with Seth face to face after giving her own feelings a lot of thought, and we didn’t start anything together until after she was single again.”

 

“Then why keep your relationship a secret?”

 

“Maybe because we knew you and others would react this way,” Ryan countered, crossing his arms in front of his chest and meeting her glare for glare. We knew that no one would support us, that no one would understand or give us a chance, so, while we could, we kept our relationship to ourselves, not because we were embarrassed or ashamed, but because it was what was best for us as a couple.”

 

“And what about Seth,” she inquired, beseeching her oldest son to understand her position. “What about your brother? And you,” she turned to focus her attention upon the woman who was causing the very mess her family was about to step foot into. “How could you do that to someone who has been there for you for years, someone you once claimed to love?”

 

Shyly, almost hesitantly, Marissa responded, “I’ll always love Seth, but I’m not in love with him anymore. Granted, when there was no one else there for me, he was. For so many years, he was my best friend, and that is not something I can just forget.” When Kirsten scoffed, the younger woman simply continued in her honest yet confident manner. “Someday, I hope that Seth and I can get past this. I know that when he finds out I broke the promise I made to him, that he’ll be angry and hurt, and I know it was selfish that I couldn’t keep that promise, and I’m sorry, but I’m not sorry enough to take back my actions, to change how I feel for Ryan, or to want him to change how he feels about me.”

 

Ignoring everything else the eighteen year old photography major said, the mother of two zeroed in on one word. “What promise?”

 

It was her son who answered her. “When Marissa went out to Brown to break up with Seth, he made her promise that she would never be with me.”

 

“Well, it’s beyond obvious that she broke that promise,” Kirsten exploded, gesturing wildly between the two them and the bed they had just, moments before, been sharing. “You truly are the product of your parents,” she snapped in an attempt to hurt the younger woman. “Just like them, you’re a liar, too. I thought you were better than that, Marissa. I thought you were a decent, caring person.”

 

“That’s enough,” Ryan exploded, opening the door and motioning for her to leave. “Don’t you get it,” he berated his mother. “If Seth ever loved Marissa, if he ever even cared about her, he would never have given her that ultimatum. He would have realized that she had genuine feelings for me and put aside his own petty jealousy and wish her well, hoping that, someday, she was able to fall in love again, even if that meant being with his older brother. Seth wasn’t the only one in their relationship who had offered unfaltering support over the years. Marissa was there for him every step of the way as well, but people change. They grow up, they mature, and, sometimes, despite their intentions, they grow apart. Seth needs to grow up and get over himself. After all, there are some things in life that are not all about him, and what we have,” he paused long enough to meet his girlfriend’s teary gaze before turning back to woman who had adopted him so long ago as a child, “has nothing to do with Marissa’s ex-boyfriend, my brother, or your son. There are only two people in this relationship, and that’s myself and Marissa, and that’s exactly why you weren’t told about us. So, thanks for stopping by, Mom, but, if you can’t support our being together as a couple, then you’re not welcome here.”

 

“As long as I sign the rent checks for this apartment, I can do and say whatever the hell I want here.”

 

“If that’s the way you feel,” her son gave in, “then I’ll be out by the morning.”

 

“But where will you go? What will you do? What about law school?”

 

“I don’t know,” Ryan shrugged, walking her towards the front door, “but, at this point, it’s no longer your concern.”

 

As she moved with him practically by force, she could feel Marissa’s eyes following their movements from the doorway she herself had just vacated, and she became angry all over again. Just as he was about to close the door in her face, she stopped him, sticking a heeled foot in between the door jam. “No, wait,” Kirsten pleaded, sighing in relief when he opened the entrance far enough to look her in the face. “I won’t let you do this. You’ve already sacrificed your relationship with your brother for her. I won’t let you sacrifice your education and your future for her as well. I’ll keep paying the rent on your apartment, and I’ll keep paying for your tuition, but she is not welcome in my home.”

 

“Then neither am I,” her oldest child stated without hesitation. “And, someday, I will pay you back for everything. But, for now, I have nothing left to say to you. Goodbye, Kirsten.”

 

And then, just like that, the door closed, and, suddenly, she was really regretting not listening to Sandy.


	10. Chapter Ten

**Shadows Have Offended**  
  
 **Chapter Ten**  
 **OCFF#12: Sometimes, in order to move forward, you have to look back at how we got here in the first place.**

_  
_He watched her. Silently, while she sat gazing out at the horizon, he stood in the window behind her, never once taking his dark, merry orbs from her form. Everyone else was too busy masking their disappointment in each other with fake smiles and pleasantries, but she was the only one who wasn’t pretending, and Sandy was sick of the petty fight separating his family. It was time to move on; hell, it was way past time, and the only way that could be accomplished was to welcome and accept Marissa into their family. If no one else was going to make the gesture of good will, then, so be it, he would. After all, of all of them, he had been the least surprised and most supportive of the idea of Ryan and Marissa dating. Although he had never said anything, he had quietly, on the sidelines, noticed his youngest son and his girlfriend growing further and further apart from each other, and he had also noticed the lingering looks his oldest son had sent in the blonde beauty’s direction. His only regret was that the couple had not gone about starting their relationship a different, better way.

A part of him could understand Kirsten’s attitude towards Marissa. While she and Ryan had somewhat mended the fences by burying the hatchet, thankfully not in each other’s back, by putting the past where it belonged, there was still a tension between them, and the attorney feared it would always be there despite his wife not having a valid reason to protest against their son’s relationship with the soon-to-be professional photographer. Marissa was smart, talented, classically gorgeous, and, most importantly, she loved Ryan with both a fierce passion and a blind sense of loyalty - just as he loved her. But Kirsten couldn’t look past the wedge the young woman had caused between her children; she couldn’t forget the pain the now twenty year old woman had caused Seth. Although Sandy had long since figured out the fact that it was more Seth’s pride that had been hurt than his heart, Kirsten had always been protective of their youngest son, almost too much so, but he knew that if she continued to struggle against Ryan’s decision to be with Marissa, they would eventually lose a part of their family, and, if that happened, nothing would ever be right again.  
  
In fact, he wished that his wife would simply take her cues from Seth himself, as frightening as that thought was. He had moved on, going from girlfriend to girlfriend, and, the father of two suspected, from one night stand to one night stand. It seemed as if some mysterious twist of fate had caused the two brothers to almost switch identities when it came to their personal lives. When one left his womanizing ways behind to become a devoted boyfriend to someone he cared deeply for, the other forgot about the respect he had for women and became a playboy, a cad, and, while the purely male part of Sandy couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride in his youngest son’s philandering ways, the father in him knew that enough was enough. If he didn’t stop his dangerous behavior soon, he would do something he couldn’t come back from, and Seth was not emotionally ready or mentally ready to face such severe consequences. Apparently, his body thought otherwise though.  
  
However, thinking about the changes that needed to be made in his family was certainly not going to yield results, so, stepping out from his vantage point just inside the open french doors of the kitchen, Sandy slowly approached the woman lost in thought in a patio chair, smiling softly to himself at the picture she made. He knew that if Marissa could have an out of body experience, she would have wanted to take a picture of herself at that precise moment. Despite the tension surrounding her in the household, she was perfectly content and at peace. Her body and expression were soft with happiness. With her hair blowing gently in the ocean side breeze, and her demure little sun dress fluttering softly with the currents surrounding her, she simply remained there, silently observing the setting sun as he approached. Not even her hands which were resting gently in her lap showed any signs of her awareness of his presence, but he knew she was perfectly alert, and the fact that she spoke first only proved him right.  
  
“Are you sure you want to be doing this... being seen with me, public enemy number one? If you get caught, you might be spending quite a few nights on the couch.”  
  
Sandy chuckled, knowing her warning held a strong vein of truth to it. “I’ll take the risk.”  
  
“Suit yourself.” Although the comment was accompanied with a delicate shrug of her bare shoulders, he could tell that her attitude was anything but unaffected or indifferent. She wanted to be acknowledged; she wanted someone to actually accept her as a part, a very important part, of Ryan’s life.  
  
“So, may I ask why you’re sitting out here all by yourself instead of coming inside?”  
  
Simply stated, she explained, “Ryan needs this time with his family. I know that last year when Kirsten found and confronted us about our relationship, he told her that he would be perfectly fine without her in his life, but he was just lying to cover up the pain. She’s his mother, Sandy, just as you’re his dad. Nothing I do or become in his life can replace that, and, if I have to stay outside for a few hours by myself to give him that bond back, then I will.” Turning around in her chair and curling her legs up underneath her again, the young woman stated confidently, “I love him enough and I’m secure enough in his love for me to do that. I just wish others were so confident.”  
  
“Hey,” he quickly reassured her, holding up his hands in perhaps what was a gesture of either surrender or compliance, “I agree with you. This little battle of wills between the three of them has gone on long enough, but you hiding out here isn’t going to fix anything.”  
  
“Ryan and Kirsten need to be on better ground before I try to make peace with her, too.”  
  
He nodded his head in acquiesce. “You might be right.” Stepping aside momentarily, he reached out for another chair and pulled it closer to the photography major. “But, in the meantime, what are you going to do? You and Ryan are here in town for the weekend. You can’t mean to stay out here or in the poolhouse that whole time?”  
  
“My Mom will be home soon, and, when she gets back, I’m going over to spend the next few days with her. She went up to LA this morning to do a little shopping...”  
  
“Julie Cooper, shopping,” Sandy mocking teased, making his companion smile for the first time since their conversation started. “Now, that’s just something too strange for even me, a relatively open minded guy, to believe.”  
  
“I know,” the twenty year old agreed, giggling slightly.  
  
He liked when she laughed; he always had. In his rather untrained and biased opinion, she came alive when she was so filled with amusement it spilled forth around her. Her bright blue eyes started to sparkle, and her face was transformed from something of mere outward beauty to something that simply glowed with inner radiance. It was no wonder both of his children had, at one point, fallen in love with the young woman sitting across from him.  
  
“Anyway,” Marissa continued, returning to their discussion. “She’s stuck in traffic right now, but she called me a few minutes ago and said that she should be here within the hour. When she gets home, I’ll sneak away, and it’ll be like I was never even here.”  
  
“I highly doubt that,” the father of two reassured her. “I think you leave your mark wherever you go, kid.”  
  
Again, she simply shrugged. Glancing back at the house, he noticed all three members of his family staring at him through the window. Ryan was grinning, Seth looked bored, and Kirsten was glowering, so he decided to stay outside with the little neighbor girl who had grown into a remarkable young woman despite the odds stacked against her thanks to her parents and younger sister for just a little while longer.  
  
“So, how’s life as a photography major treating you,” he inquired socially.  
  
Immediately, she warmed to the subject. “It’s amazing. Before I went to college, I thought that I would just be honing my craft, that there wasn’t much they would be able to teach me, but I was wrong, Sandy, so very wrong. By the time I graduate in two more years, I think Ryan is going to be sick and tired of both me and my cameras. I’m always taking pictures of him.”  
  
“Well, that makes sense. You love him, so, of course, he would inspire you artistically.” Thinking for a moment, he proposed, “you know, I would love some nice photos of him. He was never quite the ham Seth was growing up, so he wouldn’t pose for pictures, and forget about getting candid shots of him. That kid is always ten steps ahead of me, and it’s impossible to sneak up on him.”  
  
Confiding cheekily, Marissa revealed, “no it’s not.”  
  
“And that’s enough of that conversation. I do not need to hear details,” the lawyer stated with an amused chuckle. “Remember, he’s still my son, and you’re still the little girl who hated wearing her diapers when she was a baby and would constantly take them off and try to run around buck naked.” Almost instantly, the twenty year old’s face turned a bright shade of embarrassed red. “I might be pretty liberal, but even I still like to think that all you and my son do is hold hands together.”  
  
“And that is all we do,” the leggy blonde lied through the skin of her teeth just to placate him and curb the dangerously uncomfortable territory their conversation had veered into.  
  
“Now, tell me about Ryan,” Sandy asked, effectively moving on. “When he calls home, he doesn’t say much. He just finished his second year of law school, so he’s probably pretty burnt out.”  
  
“Actually, I think he just wants thing to be over with already. If he could have taken a full course load of classes this summer, he probably would have. He’s ready to get on with his life - to take his bar exam and actually start practicing.”  
  
Interestingly, the father of two posed, “and this hurry to take that one last leap into adulthood, that wouldn’t have anything to do with you and your relationship with him, would it?”  
  
Guardedly, she queried, “why would you ask that?”  
  
“Because I think my son wants to marry you,” the dark haired man revealed, “and I think he wants to hold your hand until the point where you’re pregnant with his child.”  
  
Flabbergasted, Marissa stammered, “a baby?”  
  
“They’re known to happen when two people love each other.”  
  
“But we haven’t talked about children, and we’re certainly not trying, but...”  
  
Patting her knee in a fatherly fashion, Sandy stood up and went to leave, offering her just a few more words in parting. “Even when you’re not looking for something to happen, fate has a strange way of stepping in and taking control. All I want to say is don’t completely shut out the idea. Worse things could happen, kid.” And, with one last smile in her direction, he left, chuckling to himself as he watched his various family members scatter to the winds as he approached the house. Chickens - all of them.

~ } { ~

  
Do not doubt us, for our actions have been true. Nothing that has occurred here was an accident. Although the paths we set out for our subjects might seem slightly too twisting, there is a reason for every obstacle life, through our designs, throws at you as humans. Sometimes, you must suffer through great pain or loss to see the truth that is waiting there before you, and, while it might sound cliche, everything in life happens for a reason.  
  
And do not dismiss what the wise man has just said. While his thoughts of a child might have appeared sudden or even out of nowhere, we are always around lurking, observing, even molding. The seed of thought needed to be planted, and, as we are sometimes forced to do, we used a human as our means of speaking. You, as humans, cannot hear us; our voices are too soft. You as humans cannot see us; our forms are too small, practically a ghost if nothing more. But we can certainly see and hear you. In fact, we are always with you, helping to guide and decide your fate.  
  
As for Marissa, her body is indeed preparing itself for new life. While, to the outside eye, it might appear as if she and Ryan are not ready for a baby, we know otherwise; we know everything. A child can often be the means of bridging the gap between two otherwise separated people, and, with just the right amount of magic, this child will heal this otherwise injured family, bringing them closer together than ever before. We know this, so, despite you humans trying to avoid or deny your destiny, we force you to accept it, because, in the end, we know what is best for you while you’re simply attempting to be so wise.  
  
Do not try to thwart our designs. You, as humans, will never succeed, especially on a midsummer’s night. Those are the nights when fate truly is inescapable, when our magic is in its most powerful stage. A Midsummer’s Night is perfect for love and romance, happily ever after’s, and prophetic dreams that will help guild you throughout your life. It’s the perfect time for two people to come together and make a child - a precise and pure combination of two people we previously determined should be together. And tonight, for Ryan and Marissa, is no exception.  
  
However...  
  
If we shadows have offended, think but this (and all is mended), that you have slumbered here, while these visions did appear. And this weak and idle theme, no more yielding but a dream, gentles, do not reprehend.


End file.
